Gnomedex has come and gone. It was, hands down, an amazing conference (or un-conference, as it turns out). It was basically a room full of thought-leaders coming together to share ideas and look at where we are going. The energy and the vibe were exhilarating. Chris and Ponzi did an amazing job of not only organizing the event, but coordinating all the speakers and topics and making sure everyone got the most out of it.

I met a ton of new people, went all out blogging the whole thing on Blogaholics (23 posts in all!), and came home with a bag full of swag.

Anyway, rather than inundate everyone with all of my posts, I'll just go over some of the highlights:

Dave Winer notes that anyone can lead the future of the web now. It's not about being the leader or controlling the technology anymore. He advises us to think of the web based on how everything interconnects. To think of it as a repository of knowledge. When you do, you'll think of it based on how things fit together. Technology is secondary to this and should be used to highlight these interconnections.

We saw the release of IE 7 and previewed Longhorn, which will feature RSS integration as its main selling point. Many of the RSS features, including the new Simple List Extension, will be available under Creative Commons.

Dave Sifry notes that the web is a stream of state changes, not documents or pages. It's people talking.

The Hive was launched. For Windows fanatical leaders. Enough said.

Matt Westervelt, Asa Dotzler, Scott Collins and Matt Mullenweg had a great session on Open Source; all about the benefits of word of mouth, about community building, and the challenges of choosing what is your core product and what you leave to others in the form of extensions. It's hard to transcribe. My posts are here and here.

Julie Leung gave the best presentation at Gnomedex. Everyone just sat in awe. Julie gave a presentation on blogging as a social tool and the challenges in deciding what to blog, what to keep private, and what your online self really is. It was inspiring to hear her struggle to find the balance as well as her rich description of the benefits you get from sharing your life online with others.

"This is a personal media revolution" - JD Lasica (ourmedia)

Terry Heaton (Donata Communications) told us how WKRN-TV was using blogging to build audience. They started with one blogger but now they are moving to having the reporters all blog as a part of the company-endorsed strategy.

Adam Curry keynoted the end of Gnomedex by sharing with us Daily Source Code #200 with the following highlights:

• "We want to take back the media. Not to put it into our hands, but our hearts"
• Blogging is a communication medium. A marketing medium. It will always be both. Let's embrace it.
• Podcasting will be the revolution for music promotion
• We're taking back our media to its roots in the hearts and minds of people through the power of subscription.