He introduces himself as Alan Hoffman, the freelance writer who picked the Top 100 sites.

       “You did a great job,” I shout over the music.

       I tell him I hope that next year there will be more personal sites on the roster.

       Alan Hoffman says, “That’s my passion, too.”

       We exchange cards.

       I ask Alan Hoffman if the hosts are planning a ceremony of some kind.

       “I think they just give you beer,” he says.

       In his writeup of my site, Alan Hoffman had said: “Venture capitalists: Give Zeldman your money!”

       He’d said more than that, but that was the part I liked best.

       I tell him I haven’t met any venture capitalists yet.

       He laughs at my little joke.

       A third man joins us: Dave, the venture capitalist from my place of business.

       “This is Dave,” I say. “He’s a venture capitalist.”

       “By day,” Dave says. He’s a charming and intelligent man, as I suppose you have to be to coax millions of dollars from new investors each week on the basis of a business plan and a domain name.

       Dave and Alan exchange cards.

       Alone again, I watch a tiny gif image from my website fill the screen behind the stage.

       I think about the Web’s barely-tapped potential as a medium for art and ideas.

       I think I have lived and breathed this vision of the Web for five years.

       Met people who see the Web as I do. Who create (often profound) work not honored here tonight.

photomontage.com. yenz.com. futurefarmers.com. quiet-time.com. volumeone.com. yugop.com. fray.com. smug.com. glassdog.com. 0sil8.com. k10k.net. once-upon-a-forest.com. prehensile.com. famewhore.com. eneri.net. palesky.com. bittersweets.org. croon.com. grantstreetjournal.com. truedesigns.com. soulflare.com. themonster.net. jodi.org. gizmonics.com. randomacts.com. harlem.org. fathom5.net. superbad.com. bornmag.com. praystation.com. infinite-race.com. pixeljunkie.com. thefinger.com. grijn.com. industries.de. uploading.com. invertebrae.com. hoopla.com. tree-axis.com. projectbox.com. beatthief.com. neuesentimentalfilm.com. opussoup.com. perfect.co.uk. rsub.com. disinfo.com. suffocate.org. liftingfaces.com. navigatingthebody.com. combine.org. mappa.mundi.net. coolstop.com. shift.jp.org. projectcool.com. 3-am.com.

       I think we who see the Web this way are a tiny minority.

       Seduced by the immediacy of the medium and the power it gives to ordinary citizens, we believe that we can shape the medium and change the world.

       Another naive dream. This generation’s Woodstock Nation.

       They are serving dry little cookies now.

       I have been here for an hour and will soon run out of cigarettes.

       My two friends find me, and we head for the nearest exit door.

       In a hallway just outside the noise, there are photographs of Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and other Beautiful People enjoying a night at China Club.

       At the bottom of the second stairwell, a woman in a Beenz outfit hands us large plastic cups that say beenz, and complimentary copies of POV Magazine.

       On the street, where it has begun to rain lightly, the bouncer says, “Thanks, come again.”

» I’m a happy cog!