London's Social Networks of New Tech-heads

Yesterday Mike Butcher of TechCrunch UK organised a Mash-Mob at the Festival Hall (arrives like a Flash Mob, but hangs around for a long time just chattin') - of course getting an outdoor venue in sunshine, by the river with WiFi and Cold Booze is a good idea .

Got to talk to lots of people I didn't know - or, as turned out in many cases, did "Virtually know" as I had either read their blogs or chatted over Twitter. There is something about sitting in the warm sun with a cold beer, watching the river go by and discussing the merits of fuzzy logic vs genetic algorithms vs numerical method algorithms for distinguishing emotion in visual images, or finding fellow mechanical engineers to talk about robotics with.....

Anyway, the chart below shows - on yesterday's evidence anyway - the broader social networks at work in London's New Tech Arena:



There is quite a solid London scene of bloggers in our space, who come from all these areas, but what did interest me was the sheer number of people on Twitter - in fact I suggest from now on its easier if everyone just wears a badge with their Twitter name on (or writes it on their forehead) because that way far more people will know you. Also, of the "artist" class The sheer number of musicians I met outnumbered all other forms of art (I class Podcasters and Seesmic-ers and Qik-ers as Mediaheads here). I guess social media in all its forms has been a great channel for them for longer than others (and their industry is under more pressure?)