Web 2.0 Expo Gets Recessionified

Photo used with permission by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/3405640298/in/set-72157616147538993/">James Duncan Davidson</a>

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The theme of this week’s Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Silicon Valley’s annual geek family reunion qua idea show and tell, is “The Power of Less.” Here in the Texas-sized Moscone conference center (hike toward the panel just over the hallway horizon!), recession is definitely the new green.

Many of this year’s talks are grim soup lines doling out tips on how to hang on to a slippery website dollar among fickle, fickle users, or wring a few pennies out of Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media enterprise.

And forget the Wii-filled, bass-thumping blogger room and the eco-idealist exhibit swag of 2008. Nothing but coffee urns and industrious laptop-tappers here in the media room this year, people. Thank God.

One app I’m liking today: Gawkk, which bills itself as a ‘Twitter for videos,’ “where members discover, share, and discuss videos from around the web with their friends by answering the question: What are you watching?”

Coming Friday: etsy! Threadless! And more counter-intuitive hipster business models that seem to work better than AIG‘s.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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