Observations on Spring InternetWorld 2002:

Yes, it was rather disappointing as a tradeshow. Where were all the biggies, all those companies that want us to be loyal to them, but can't bother being loyal to us enough to even show up? Microsoft, Oracle, and others didn't show. L-Soft (developer of LISTSERV) wasn't there, nor was Earthlink.

AOL was there and very loud. According to a speaker I talked to, InternetWorld Chicago has already been cancelled (was in June). What Penton Media needs to do is scale down to web services, i.e. search engines, submission services, e-mail services and marketing.

I went to the Intenet Luncheons ($45 for a lousy lunch), and the person running the roundtable didn't even bother to show up. I did meet some very interesting people in usability design who had no idea how much sociology plays into their area.