AlwaysON's OnMedia launches with Gusto

As the efficient staff of the Mandarin Oriental hotel here in New York were threatening participants to enter the standing-room only kickoff of the two-day AlwaysOn Conference by dramatically closing the bars, Tony Perkins was announcing on stage that, in a tribute to multitasking New Yorkers, the bars would remain open throughout the evening...

Naturally, Tony (and the participants) won. So did the bloggers in "Blogger Bullpen" with 'hot and cold running WiFi' and [mostly] true power cords to comfortable seating and tables stage center, allbeit in the back where many of us are happy to be [did someone say the bar is still open?].

Perkins and CKS founder Bill Cleary did a rampant run of 'blogcam' interviews from the World Economic Forum at Davos (Tony), focussed mostly on satire of the presence of Claudia Schiffer ["I held her wine," Tony says at one point], and from San Francisco (Bill) lampooning the notion the Internet will affect the blogosphere [echoing effect of polution on biosphere - ahem].

Peter Hirshberg, chairman of Technorati, proceeded with his classical spirited romp through Media big and new, including his candid interviews of children on questions the Internet, in the children who explain why they're adamant that using the Internet is so much more engaging than TV, games, etc.

"Computers will be on top and everything else will be going down," in prominance, one of the young girls says.

Displaying the Time Magazine "You" cover of the 2006 Person of the Year, he adds:

"It was a bit of a surprise to the content world that we could amuse ourselves."

And THAT would be the grist of the next two days, presumably!