by Brian Solis
SF Apple Store
In the inspiring and community-focused tradition of BarCamp, PodCamp, WineCamp and FooCamp, a new phenomenon emerged yesterday, iPhone Camp aka iLines.
Can you say, “You were there?”
iWas There. At least I stopped by the San Francisco store while Alison McNeill and Nandor Fejer of bub.blicio.us tv stopped by the Palo Alto location.
San Francisco was exactly what I expected to see. It was a gathering of theatrics, youth, professionals, onlookers all staged in an aura of coolness and community. I was surprised however, not to see any of SF’s famous geeks among them. They were probably too busy networking and partying at the StumbleUpon or Merchant Circle parties.
In fact, I was a little disappointed with San Francisco.
In Palo Alto, however, the theatrics escalated into a full blown media circus. Almost every news organization from the Palo Alto Daily to CNBC were on hand to capture the excitement.
Robert Scoble with son, Patrick Scoble (13) Photo Credit: Palo Alto Daily News
It all started when Robert Scoble announced that he was going to the Apple store to start the wait. Within hours, the line not only grew, but it quickly became a geek camp that attracted Zooomrs Kris Tate and Thomas Hawk, Don MacAskill of Smugmug, Jeremiah Owyang, and worldwide attention from traditional media and the blogosphere.
Kevin Rose also made an appearance, bringing his crew to the Apple store for a live broadcast of Diggnation.
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk
Today, there are over 100 people standing in line with companies and people from all over the Peninsula bringing pizza, water, sodas, and snacks to keep the iPhone hopefuls well nourished in order to shell out $800 when they finally get in the store.
Scoble and the Zooomr crew are livecasting their experience on ustream…with as many as 700 people viewing simultaneously. The neighboring stores are supplying everyone with power!
Patrick Scoble, Valerie Cunningham (Podtech) and Kris Tate
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk
Here come the iPhones. Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk
While it may seem absurd to many, this experience will go down in history for Apple die hards, much in the same way Star Wars and music festivals inspire their own fanatics.
6/29/07, iWas There.
For more, visit Scoble’s live report from the front line.
iphone apple robert+scoble thomas+hawk zooomr ustream smugmug podtech kevin+rose digg diggnation
