MashupCamp--a new kind of get-together - | CNET News.com

Nice summary of MashupCamp by CNET's Daniel Terdiman over on news.com. I like this quote:

"The amazing thing about these camps, using open space methodology, is they shouldn't work," said Ross Mayfield, CEO of Socialtext, which makes social software for collaboration. "Like a wiki, it turns out that some very simple and open rules have shockingly positive results--because people, on the whole, are good. Open events like these have become almost commonplace in the Valley. In fact, I'd say they are a key driver for the current wave of innovation. One part wiki, one part space and two parts people, add water, and voila!"

This gets at what I appreciate most about the emerging Web 2.0 & mashup culture: you hear "client SDKs talking to APIs", but what's really happening is "developers talking to platform providers, other developers, users, and anyone else, all eye to eye." This is the most openly social, collaborative, and peer-to-peer development that I have seen in 25 years of coding, and I sure hope it sticks. Coding can be really fun. If it were not for these emerging social changes in software development, I don't think I would care nearly as much for the Web 2.0 world.