They say a great idea comes from seeing a need and satisfying it.

In the Web 2.0 world, most of the ideas come from taking what people have been doing and putting an “Un—” in front of it.

So you have BarCamp an un-conference. Then you have Lunch 2.0, the un-power lunch. Heck you’d think this whole Web 2.0 bubble would be powered by 7 Up, the un-cola, but really it’s something more like Red Bull, which as near as I can figure is the un-un-cola.

In case this turns out big, I’m blogging the newest thing in the Web 2.0 social: Spontaneous Drinking Night in SF (join the Facebook group).

It’s an un-event.

After all, what ever happened to kicking it back for a few beers with friends after work and talking about the latest viral video—in this case, the kissy anus face?

Do the kissy-anus-face
Eddie Rickenbacker’s, SoMa, San Francisco, California

Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON 35mm F1.2 Aspherical
3 exposures @ 1/30sec, iso 320, 35mm (47mm)

Here’s the idea: Need an excuse to drink mid-week? Someone sends out a Facebook message with the deets: some bar in SF, most likely with a bunch of geeks, and no set agenda other than to have a few beers after work.

Oh yeah, you’re thinking: Damn that client was a moron, but I’m not in the capital of geekdom and alcoholism (San Francisco) where they have yet to have a first official event but somehow managed to get 269 members.

That’s okay, “like an STD in the 70’s,” we’ve spread virally to Silicon Valley and Vienna. And if there isn’t a chapter near you, what’s preventing you from setting one up and telling us about it?

Hope to catch you at the next event.

[The ur-un-event and the Long Tail after the jump.]

The ur-un-event… or what I sound like after a few beers

Basically this started because Cindy was bummed that she missed the parties on Tuesday as she was out of town.

No problem as if there is one thing San Francisco has a surfeit of today, it is Geeks getting drunk. Right?

Wrong. Because according to my (Web 2.0) calendar Web 2.0 Summit rolled into town. This meant the Web 2.0 party (I think it was MySpace) was invite-only. And if there is one thing you can trust the Web 2.0 world to be, it is being a raving hypocrite at the earliest opportunity.

I’m sorry, Tim, I can’t really tell the difference between ‘new media’ and ‘old media?’ And no, it’s not blurring isn’t because of the drinking. Today was supposed to be my liver’s day off.

Terry crashing my party? DO NOT WANT.

So when Cindy set up some drinks with Mager and the CNET gang, I so had to go.

Web 2.0 sherpas

Web 2.0 Summit tag line: “Where are we most stimulated? At the Web’s edge.”

Dave: “I don’t know about you but that’s not where I go to get stimulated on the internet.”

If these ““hotty toddy”ies are the “Web 2.0 Summit,” then Spontaneous Drinking Night in SF is the “Base Camp of Drink.” And no, bitch, we’re not sherpaing for you this evening. It’s midweek and your last six featured companies drove us to add uncov to our Bloglines.

The un-topics for the un-social

Speaking of Uncov, Kyle of Uncov was discussing with Robert Balousek of HALOLCATS the correct font and stroke weight for a good cat macro.

Really.
Important.
(Web 2.0)
Stuff.

Another topic

Lately xkcd has become, for me, the hallmark card of events—you know, when I care enough to send a good joke that I wish I had thought up.

Like the time I sent some perspective to my friends at Mozilla 24.

Or that time I told Robert that the combination of this formula and his coming birthday meant that I could safely hit on him and not be creepy.

(Okay, I didn’t do that last one. But only because I didn’t want to make his wife, Mager, jealous.)

To inaugurate our first official Spontaneous Drinking Night, I’m hoping to empirically verify xkcd’s Ballmer Peak which talks about programming efficiency as a function of blood alcohol concentration. When I posted it, I took another look at the graph and said:

xkcd’s graph of the Ballmer peak, annotated: “I call long tail!”

Yeah, and if you’re wondering why the open bar at geek events keeps running out of alcohol:

LOLBOOZE
DäDä SF Studio
SoMa, San Francisco, California

Nikon D200, Tokina 16-50mm AT-X PRO f/2.8 DX, SB-800, ultimate light box
1/10sec @ f/2.8, iso400, 16mm (24mm)

A little homage to uncov graphics.