While the event was titled “Citizen 2.0: Radically Rethinking Democracy in the Digital Age,” I think there was a sub-text to the event that was as interesting, if not more so, than the idea of a Citizen 2 dot oh (which is how the Yahoo!s were saying it. And yes, they call themselves Yahoo!s). I will post the top-line, take-homes over the weekend about this magical, mystical Citizen 2.0, but here, I wanted to put forth my 2.0 cents on the other thing I observed.

Given the setting (Willard), the speakers (Karl Rove, Max Cleland), the attendees (I would wager most were over the age of 40?!) and the cocktail/hors d’Å“uvre after party (top shelf, all the way around)… this was no Internet-is-for-the-young OR the Internet-is-for-people-in-their-pajamas-living-at-home kind of scene. I have been to quite a few events, conferences and workshops in the new media space and let me tell you, this was the fancy-schmanciest yet. It was also the first where there were secret-service looking types walking around and talking into their cuff-links (okay, the latter part of the sentence was a stretch, but you get the point).

(kind of looked like this)

And if we follow my (errr, Durkheim’s) “look at the shadow if you want to know about the form” logic from my last post, then reading these cultural symbols (people, place, things) points to the emergence of a few other new “2 dot oh” species:

The “influential 2.0″ - I would roughly define this term as fitting people in positions of power/decision makers, or are people who have direct in-roads to these influentials — in sectors such as government, business, etc. — that are getting hip to the existence and importance of “the blogs.” Hearing that Karl Rove reads blogs would be an example of this — he is both influential in his own right and, well, you know, has influential friends.

  • … and by “the blogs”… I mean to say the conversations and ideas being shared online… I would also include the things that are actually broken online by websites, blogs and media sources alike (read: the 24/7/365 news cycle).
  • … and in agency speak… an “influential” is an actual thing/person as opposed to an adjective.

The “strategist 2.0″ - Strategists and consultants — such as those from the political, PR and advertising phyla — who make their money leveraging the influence, relationships, fundraising potential, Word-of-Mouth marketing, etc. from “the blogs” (and other online media, groups, networks, outlets, and so on).

  • While Rove did not go much further than talking about micro-targeting and e-mail lists, it seems that he could be called a strategist 1.5 (falling short of the full 2.0 as he did not seem to embrace an integrated new media strategy of harnessing the power of social media, blogs, etc. — oh, and he is sort of not doing this anymore, so that also must be taken into account… he was mostly talking in terms of “in the 2000 and 2004 races”)

The “politician 2.0″ - Ok, now I am starting to annoy myself (and yes, I know people have already killed the meaning of “2.0″ by adding it onto everything and probably have applied it to this arena already) but let me have just one more.

  • We have already seen the neotenistic form of this animal from the candidates in the 2008 presidential election with everything from Barack’s social network (yay Blue State Digital), to live-blogging on the FredFile (full disclosure, Fred is a NMS client), to the multiple announcements made via canned videos on websites, not live on TV.
  • One of the speakers at the Yahoo! event made the point that perhaps in 20 years, there will be a candidate who will leverage all of their online connections and their online persona to actually become president. That would be interesting and not out of the realm of possibilities (so take note, all of you out there on Gaia, mebo, Facebook, myspace, iminlikewithyou, etc).

Looking at this photo 2 years ago, save for the Yahoo! banner in the background, you would have been safer to guess that the caption would be about some traditional business or media event or some traditional outreach (e.g., $500 a plate dinner), and not some event with the phrases “new media” or “Internet strategy” or “Web 2.0.” Times they are a changin’

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On the personal side of things… a few quick notes and pics:

Max Cleland was an amazing speaker, not to mention an incredible person. He has overcome a great deal of adversity and has achieved more than most above-average people. So cool. So funny. So nice. When I talked with him and gave him my card (green thing in my left hand below), he asked for my address so he could drop me a real note. Old skool is the new school. I will be checking my mailbox!

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For all the photos fit to click, Jesse has a great gallery over on his Flickr account… and a great post too. So does my colleague, Bill Beutler (far left in the picture above).UPDATE: I have also reposted an adapted version of this entry over at DC Tech Beat.