Of geeks and other Ellison party guests

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Last Saturday, we attended a star-studded party for legal scholar Jonathan Zittrain’s provocative new book, “The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It.”

It was held at the Pacific Heights home of Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison and wife, Melanie, a romance novelist and junior high school chum of Zittrain’s. Melanie co-hosted with uber blogger Arianna Huffington. The event attracted an unusual mix of Internet and political luminaries including Craig Newmark of Craigslist fame and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, high financiers such as Thomas Steyer, president and senior managing member of Farallon Capital Management, and even some of the grand dames of San Francisco society.

Despite the high-wattage clique, Ellison’s security was out in force, brawny guys with tell-tale earpieces to keep guests from wandering the elegant ultra modern home with stunning views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge (or perhaps from launching a hostile takeover).

Word is that the elaborate mis en scene produced by San Francisco’s event guru Stanlee Gatti was all part of a clever Stanford University campaign to recruit Zittrain, who is professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford Internet Institute and is co-founder of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

No wonder. The bespectacled Zittrain is a witty, erudite charmer who turned a potentially dry and geeky subject (the fate of innovation on the Internet) into a series of entertaining sound bites to a room full of people, most of whom had not read his book and were not familiar with his academic theories. Among the most amusing: his memory of Melanie Ellison’s kindness toward him when other kids bullied him.

As for the real bites: We were treated to the world’s smallest hors d’oeuvres: tiny cheeseburgers, teaspoons full of macaroni and cheese, miniature cupcakes with @ signs. Fortunately, drinks were served in grown-up sizes. And our parting gift was quite munchable, too: iced cookie replicas of Zittrain’s book wrapped in plastic and tied with a bow.

-- Jessica Guynn