If Web 1.0?s Kryptonite Was the Bust, Web 2.0 Kryptonite Was the Grind

There were two surreal moments for me at Disrupt last week. The first was during the SV Angels Party when Hammer was dancing. It wasn?t just because MC-Freaking-Hammer was doing to Hammer dance in a tux and nerd glasses in front of me. It was because the CEO and founder of the media company I work for were on stage looking awkward and white, but dancing none the less. It was because I?ve hung out with Hammer at parties and conferences like the Lobby-- two unlikely people sucked in to the Web 2.0 vortex. It was because I ran into the founders of Digg, separately and in different rooms at the party. They were like brothers the first time I met them, and now-- no matter what they politely say on stage-- they were estranged, with one ousted and the other trying to turn the once-hot company that helped start the Web 2.0 wave around. It was a feeling that something was ending.

The feeling was echoed the next day watching Kevin Rose and Michael Arrington on stage. For my corner of the Web 2.0 world these were two of the most seminal figures. I put Rose on the cover of BusinessWeek at the beginning of the wave, an article that got me a book deal that ensured I?d spend the next year surrounded by people like Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg and others. And Arrington was the only other reporter I knew back then who wasn?t a total cynic about Web 2.0 companies? chances. Eventually I?d find we were so like-minded that I wanted to work with Mike-- finally leaving my old-media roots behind. One word has summed both of these guys for a while now: Tired.Standard Microsystems Sra International Spss Spansion