In a hip swirl of pink cosmopolitan cocktails and mashed-up dance music, Silicon Valley insiders on Friday paid homage to the geeks and the glamorous reshaping culture with technology.
An invitation-only crowd of about 700 people swarmed under a tented patio walled with the visages of California’s celebrity Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harry Potter creator JK Rowling and other winners of this year’s Wired Magazine Rave Awards.
”I love it,” said Arianna Huffington, who was honoured with a 2007 Rave Award for being a ”catalyst” who took her commentary into the internet world with the online Huffington Post.
”Many people here are really changing the future,” she added, fresh from a chat with Craigslist creator Craig Newmark.
Schwarzenegger was chosen for an award because he has ”staked out politically heretical” positions backing stem-cell research, reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions and new technologies, according to Wired.
While Rowling has a sophisticated website devoted to the Harry Potter books that made her the first person to become a billionaire writing novels, she was given a Rave Award for ”inspiring a generation of screen-fed kids to devour old-fashioned books”.
What started as a hobby for Jen Chung grew into a blogging empire with fiefdoms in Paris, Shanghai, São Paulo and elsewhere.
Chung and a college pal used blogs to keep friends informed about local happenings in New York City home, fostering a network of ”hyperlocal” news blogs coordinated by their Gothamist.com website.
”My mom was born in Shanghai and she loves that blog because of all the crazy things on it,” Chung said.
Tim Kring was chosen for a Rave Award for his creation of the freshly launched hit television show Heroes in which seemingly ordinary people tap into super powers and battle evil forces.
Kring, dressed in a deep blue pin-striped suit, said the show is based on a ”mythological archetype” and uses the internet as a stage to play out aspects of the story and introduce new characters.
”It’s really amazing,” Kring said of joining the ranks of Rave Award winners that includes musician David Byrne, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. ”I work on a TV show and keep my head down most of the day, not really seeing what regular people are doing.”
Marvel Comics writer and Lost television-show story editor Brian Vaughan was given a Rave Award for storytelling prowess that has translated into technological achievements such as the X-Men in film, print and online.
”It’s sort of my year to sell out and move to Los Angeles,” Vaughan said after a lengthy one-on-one talk with Kring.
Cliff Bleszinski and Tim Sweeney were among the evening’s stars for gaming-software prowess that gives blockbuster video game Gears of War realism, including spurting blood when limbs are blasted from animated characters.
”It’s great,” Sweeney said of the honour. ”We’re just a bunch of geeks, after all. It just shows how mainstream gaming is becoming.”
Before taking the stage to entice the throng to dance with ”mash-up” music he makes by weaving together snippets of popular songs, Rave Award winner Gregg Gillis confided he is quitting his job as biomedical engineer on June 1.
Gillis recounted months of jetting off to perform with artists such as Beck in Europe on weekends only to return to the United States and be back at his cubicle at the start of the work weeks.
”It’s been great, but it’s too much,” Gillis said before launching into music set that ended with him stridently singing and then smashing a wine glass on his head.
Other winners included Alfonso Cuaron of Mexico for writing and directing the science-fiction film Children of Men and an Allen Brain Atlas team that did breakthrough research into brain functioning.
Details regarding the award winners are in the May issue of Wired. — Sapa-AFP