Audio Backlog

With Gnomedex wrapping up last weekend, I came to the realization that I have a massive backlog of audio editing to finish in the next few days. I have over 40 interviews to edit, both from Gnomedex attendees and leftovers from the Seattle International Film Festival, like Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry and film composer Mark Mothersbaugh. In the interim, I did an interview with Gedde Watanabe (aka Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles) about a short film project shooting this week called Fortune Hunters.

Gnomedex had some exceptionally great sessions this year including a conversation with Senator John Edwards, who took the time to have a conversation with a roomful of geeks about technology and politics. The John Edwards session is currently online and well worth a listen regardless of your political affiliation. I don't typically have strong opinions about politics and my voting record crisscrosses party lines regularly. Senator Edwards impressed me in this case, not because he was trying to push his party's agenda but because he was actually trying to have an intelligent conversation about issues important to geeks. We're looking at a number of technology related issues, like Net Neutrality and the right to make back-ups of your digital media, which shouldn't be considered partisan. I'd love to see a strong Republican figure put himself or herself in a similarly vulnerable position.

The other session at Gnomedex that really got my attention was the session on walking through the venture funding process. We hear plenty about small tech companies getting funding, but the process remains fairly mysterious. Three venture capitalists walked through the process of talking about funding for tag search engine TagJag for both the benefit of the audience and the potential benefit of TagJag. I may never actually go through the process of seeking venture funding, but I feel like I walked away knowing more after the session ended.