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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This is how change happens.

One story at a time.

This investigative reporting takes time too. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices.

We can afford to take our time because we don’t report to oligarchs or corporations. We report to you, and for you.

And the stakes are high. Democracy is on the defense. We’ve been exposing corruption and scandal for five decades, and this is a pivotal moment in our country’s history. Will democracy prevail? We won’t wait for time to tell—independent journalism is essential for democracy, and we’ll keep doing our part to amplify the free press.

So, we’re asking: Will you join the fight? Mother Jones has been here for 50 years, and we need your support to fuel the future of investigative journalism. Mark our 50th anniversary with a gift of any amount.

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