SAN FRANCISCO -- Tie-dyed cloth covered the tables Friday night at the Fillmore Auditorium, this city's shrine to '60s psychedelia. Bands played covers of Grateful Dead tunes, among other period anthems. But in addition to the swirling light show surrounding the stage, the dance hall walls were emblazoned by giant projected logos from the likes of Oracle, Pacific Bell, and Merrill Lynch.
California's high-tech industry is famous for melding big money with big visionaries, and at Friday's second annual party by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the harmonic convergence was in full swing.
Founded in 1990, the EFF is a nonprofit organization working to protect civil liberties in the realm of computers and the Internet. Its board roster reads like a who's who of computer industry players, many of whom were in attendance to celebrate the foundation's work -- and to schmooze.
Most of the networking was being done in the crowded "VIP room," the only place where the noise level permitted conversation. Several peasant-blouse-wearing face painters strolled around the space, but few of those sitting at the tables bearing company-tagged reserved signs took up their offers.
One who was savoring the irony of the cultural mix was John Perry Barlow, a co-founder of the EFF.
"These days if you don't have a well-developed sense of irony, you're missing out on the fun," he said.
Barlow held up the support of companies behind the Foundation's work as an example of enlightened self-interest.
"We all have an interest in being good ancestors. But being good for freedom is also good for commerce," Barlow said.
Barlow said that is was still appropriate to refer to the Internet as a frontier.
"It always will be a frontier. You can't run out of real estate," he said. "The Internet is underhyped. People don't understand how profound and thorough the changes already are, not to mention what they will be."
"This event isn't important," said EFF co-founder John Gilmore. "The work we do for civil liberties is important."
Wayne Correia, co-founder of one of the night's sponsors, the email company Critical Path, said that having so many big money players in attendance -- he had counted 12 major venture capitalists -- meant that the foundation was reaching people with an ability to make a difference.
"The important thing about EFF is that it's educating the industry," Correia said, adding that while most high tech companies are quick to grasp new technologies, they are "slow to integrate the morality" of core EFF principles -- such as respect for privacy -- into their products.
If the foundation can convince the kinds of companies represented Friday to think deeply about morality, maybe a revolution is under way. In any event, the EFF didn't seem to have any trouble finding people to dance to the message: By the time a life-sized statue of Jerry Garcia was unveiled onstage, the dance floor was packed with smiling, gyrating freedom fighters.
