Last Saturday the Bosnian town of Mostar unveiled a statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic groups. Jackie Chan is the new Bruce Lee and my mother would be as starstruck to meet him as the granchildren she babysits.
Traditional stardom cut across generations and national borders. It had global and local scope. If you lived in a part of the world that showed John Wayne movies it was likely that every age group and social class in your locality knew the name of 'The Duke'.
In contrast there was a distinct look of bewilderment in the faces of the waitresses who served us at the geek dinner in Cork last night. Who the heck was this bespectacled, sandy haired, down to earth guy at the magnetic centre of attention? A movie star? A rock star? A billionaire? No, no and no! In fact he's the first of an entirely new species - the Distributed Celebrity. Your mother never heard of him, your neighbour would draw a blank, but 50 geeks gathered in Cork last night were starstruck by Robert Scoble.
Special thanks to Tom Raftery for hosting an excellent night and my apologies for having to make a quick exit.
To be honest I only went to meet people like yourself, John and Damien. I don't even read the guy's blog. Seemed interesting enough, not only because of his stiking resemblance to Philip Seymour Hoffman :D
Posted by: Piaras Kelly | December 01, 2005 at 01:59 PM
To be honest I only went to meet people like yourself, John and Damien. I don't even read the guy's blog. Seemed interesting enough, not only because of his stiking resemblance to Philip Seymour Hoffman :D
Posted by: Piaras Kelly | December 01, 2005 at 02:07 PM
Well I was actually a little starstruck by everyone I met Piaras. Seriously! It was my first time meeting in person with several people I feel like I already knew rather well, by virtue of their blogging.
Its a very strange experience really - meeting people for the first time and feeling like you need no introduction.
Its also great to be able to engage in hours of conversation about a geeky topic that would have your 'regular' buddies yawning and throwing their eyes up to heaven ;-) :P
Posted by: James Corbett | December 01, 2005 at 02:12 PM
Damnit, I commented on the wrong post. You should have intro'd yourself. It was nice to meet the famous Scoble in person and his wife is so sweet and fun. I've never met someone with as much genuine enthusiasm as Robert. Having him on your team doing what he does would be a huge benefit.
Posted by: Damien Mulley | December 01, 2005 at 03:22 PM
No need to thank me Jim - I got as big a kick out of it as everyone else!
Posted by: Tom Raftery | December 02, 2005 at 12:17 AM
Perhaps the biggest outcome of the evening is seeing the EirePreneur walk away from yet-another free pint! I think Tom Raftery and Bob Scoble were the only people who took time out to greet everyone at the Irish Geek Dinner.
Posted by: Bernie Goldbach | December 04, 2005 at 10:50 AM
Bernie, my sincere apologies for not getting around to meeting you and the other dozen or so bloggers I really wanted to say hello to.
I took advantage of a friends offer of a lift to Cork precisely so that I would be able to enjoy my free pints only to be phoned by said friend before desert was on the table to inform me that he was waiting outside to head home :(
Lesson learnt. Next time I'm booking in to a hotel and making sure I get to talk to everyone.
Posted by: James Corbett | December 04, 2005 at 10:55 AM