Web 2.0 Expo: Wednesday morning keynotes at The Observer's Log

Web 2.0 Expo: Wednesday morning keynotes

Posted by Geoff | Filed under Careers, Technology, Travel

Unlike other conferences I’ve been to, they seem to have a lot of keynotes. Strikes me as a little odd. The only real person who do a “true” keynote would be O’Reilly, since he coined this term in the first place. He did that yesterday, and didn’t really say anything different (at least from what I’ve read).

[I hope I got all these names right. They didn't all display them when they hit the stage.]

Running a video which looks like it was taken over the last couple of days. Kinda hokey.
Brad Forrest (O’Reilly), Jennifer Pahlka (TechWeb) hosting/emceeing

Battelle/Andreessen Interview

Introduced John Battelle, CEO Federated Media, who is in turn introducing Marc Andreessen
Looks like an interview. Man, Andreesen’s gotten old. I remember when he was a student. (Mind, I was a student at the time. I guess I’m old, too.)
Question: Did you realise what Mosaic might become?
- No. Didn’t know what kind of world that it would create.
Question: At what point did you know you were on to something?
- When it went viral during the beta testing. It wasn’t until they founded Netscape that they really knew.
Believes that most traditional media companies (e.g. newspaper) are totally unprepared for the swing in the industry (i.e. Web 2.0 affecting business models)
The issue of Microsoft deciding in 1995 that they were going to build a competitor to Netscape
- Andreessen responds that Microsoft used the code that he wrote at the University of Illinois (as part of Mosaic), which he finds “exciting”
Question: What do you think of the current landscape?
- Big surprise is how many of the early ideas have lasted, such as JavaScript, cookies (which “Vint Cerf cooked up over a weekend”), the back and forward buttons (which are now appearing in operating systems)
Mild slam at Microsoft: industry has said it’s not about the PC, it’s about the web platform (the “cloud”). Microsoft just recanted and said it was about the “mesh”. Both Battelle and Andreesen nodded: it’s the “cloud” with a different name.
Most kids today communicating through social networks — through the browser — which no-one saw coming years ago
Microsoft: “wonderful company”
Very pragmatic view of Microsoft buying Yahoo: feels that it’s a natural progression, although it is a bit sad that the company will likely loose its independence
Thinks that there is a “coming nuclear winter”
- The credit crunch is wreaking havoc within the industry; could bring back the same crunch after the dotcom crash
- Every part of the economy is tightly linked, and the crunch will start affecting marketing budgets
Big conversation on basis of Ning (platform for social platforms)
Believes that if Microsoft and IBM hadn’t standardised the PC platform, this industry wouldn’t be where it is now
- Also believes that the mobile industry is being held back for exactly the same reason — no standardisation

Jonathan Zittrain

Jonathan Zittrain unable to attend, showing only a video on his book: The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It.
Some vague mention of “in the interest of reducing the carbon footprint of this conference”; c’mon, the only way to reduce the footprint is NOT TO HAVE IT

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla

Wild hair style
Wants to talk about the user experience
Shouldn’t have to worry about the mobile web — it should be just one web
- Device independence, allowing any device to see exactly the same thing
One web is important. Okay, we get it. Next point, please.
“Browser” is a bad metaphor. We don’t browse the web, we create it. We mash it. We do everything but merely look at it.
Need an open web development platform — plug for Firefox
- Pushing perhaps a little too hard for Firefox, IMO
Firefox now runs properly on mobile devices
- Fenik (Fennick? Fenick? It’s a Brazilian fox) is a specific produce release
“Mobile” also a misnomer. Devices aren’t mobile, people are. If a device is mobile without me, that’s a problem.

Ari Balogh, Yahoo CTO

Lots of stats. We know Yahoo is big. Really big.
Yahoo! Open Strategy
- Rewiring to create development platform to open assets to all developers, everywhere
- Customer experience will be social throughout
SearchMonkey development beta now open
People will be able to add their own applications/components to their Yahoo! sites (e.g. front page)
Social is not a destination, it’s a dimension
SearchMonkey is the first part of this; the rest of the Y! OS (open strategy) framework will come later this year
Pretty slick stuff — has a lot of potential and ability

Ofer Shaked, Current.tv

70% of Current watchers have a computer in the room where they watch TV
Minor redesign greatly increased the social feedback
Reviewing popular media

Steve Pirwin(?), MySpace

Seems a bit odd to be talking about MySpace instead of Facebook, or possibly the “next Facebook”
85 GB of bandwidth, 11% of online minutes in US are on MySpace