Essentials at Web 2.0 summit No. 3

Gadgets. A lot of iPhones and Crackberries. About a 50/50 split of Macs and PCs. And when you look around at how folk are welded to their various devices, you realise that multi-tasking is probably being raised to whole new level. I even spotted some people writing. On paper. Whoah...

Another random stat for you. Look hard at this picture. If you look really carefully you'll see a lady skulking among the palms. As Meg Whitman of eBay pointed out, men outnumber women at this conference by a factor of about 9 to 1. And this photo proves it.

Essentials at Web 2.0 summit No. 2

Snacks. You really could eat and drink all day here if you wanted, and if, like me, you had positioned yourself next to the baked goods table. There are scones, muffins, fruit, coffee, tea, drinks - and that's just in THIS room. Lunchtime brings picnic bags which have sandwich wraps the size of small rugby balls which you struggle to a) get your mouth around and b) finish. Oh, and crisps, fruit and a small salad.

Powerpoint at speed

One of the highlights of this conference for me is Mary Meeker, who leads Morgan Stanley's Global Research team. She has some great and really sound insights into market trends in new media across the world.

However, NO ONE presents as speedily as Mary does. 48 slides in 15 minutes. Phew. Rather than try and take notes as fast as Mary speaks, I’ll shall direct you here. It’s good stuff – go look.

I'm not sure how she'd respond to my boss, Ken MacQuarrie's rule for powerpoint though. Three numbers - 10, 20, 30. Never more than 10 slides, lasting no longer than 20 minutes and never use a font size less than 30. Something of a challenge but a good discipline...

Essentials at Web 2.0 summit No. 1

Power. Not the kind wielded by Rupert or Steve or Mark, but voltage.

I prefer to follow the sessions here from the Nokia lounge, not the Grand Ballroom where you're crammed in like sardines and can't get wifi through the 2-foot thick marble walls. No, up here there are tables, sofas and better lighting. And four out of five delegates are using their laptops as I type, blogging, doing mails, reading other blogs on this event or uploading pictures to Flickr.

When you see someone coming into the room, they don't look for a spare seat immediately, nor even scope out the range of snacks on offer (see later post up) but they scan the skirting board or the carpet or under the table looking for elusive powerpoints so that they can work all day without the little red battery light beginning to flash. Once you're plugged in, you're set for the day. And you guard your spot with your life.

A shiny new thing

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Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket

Nokia have a big presence here and I met a really nice product manager in multimedia, Chris Bouret, who demo-ed the new N810. While not specifically targeting the iPhone, it's similar in its wifi capability and touch screen. I liked it. Though don't expect it will be on offer from BBC Technology for about a decade.

The Mark and John Show

Big intro from John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly at the start of the afternoon, riffing on what was to come over the next few days. Yeah. We can read the programme in the glossy brochure - let’s get started already.

First up: Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook.

Okay, so he’s about twelve and a half. And talks like one too, in his cute little Adidas flip-flops, while cleverly deflecting the opening question from John Battelle about how much he was to sell Facebook for.

Mark talked a bit about the social graph – the set of friends and acquaintances everyone has and how Facebook tries to map this so that individuals can showcase themselves and their friends through a series of applications. It’s all about connections, he says, and how we use our social networks to gather information. It’s no longer about huge mainstream media companies disseminating news, it’s about social groupings sharing stuff together.

John asked a question about privacy and security on Facebook. Zuckerberg said that there is an interesting ‘interplay’ between privacy and how much information people want to share. Most folk would rather share stuff, than keep it private, he thinks. A few years ago, people wouldn’t even share their first and last name on the web. Now it’s much less of an issue. And if you modify your privacy settings, you’ll find that there are varying levels of information-sharing, because you won’t automatically be publishing it to 45 million Facebook users, just the ones you choose to within your network(s).

And then, after a series of questions from the floor, did the persisent Mr Battelle not ask the cute Facebook moppet the killer question? Had he considered bringing in a web veteran to help run the company like Sergey Brin and Larry Page did with Eric Schmidt over at Google? Actually, he used the more patronising term 'grown-up'. Mark looked perplexed. ‘Er.. no’, he answered. ‘I think we’ve got a good team, that’s what works for us’. Good answer, Mr Z.

On the edge

Thriving on the web's edge was the topic of the last workshop this morning, with panelists from My Space and Veoh. The bulk of the session was very technical and skewed towards business infrastructure issues but there were some headlines which were interesting from the point of view of usage in video on-demand and how two hugely successful - and recent - start-ups developed and thrived so quickly.

William Wohnoutka from Level 3 hosted the session and started out with some insights on usage:

International internet traffic grew 57% from mid-2006 to mid-2007 and it's expected to double every two years to 2011.

What drives this traffic increase? Compelling content + more choice = massive growth.

This causes all kinds of challenges vis a vis infrastructure spend.

Aber Whitcomb, CTO, My Space:

Went up against Friendster and developed My Space in about a month. Thought they could manage it with about ten guys. Early approach very reactive - break, fix, break fix. Simple architecture and simple org chart.

As My Space grew rapidly, they had to re-architect as they went and be more proactive in their business style. They learned to build things for themselves and keeping the site up and running was more important than cost-savings. And, in doing this, Aber claims they never had to sacrifice performance in favour of cost efficiencies.

As the service has matured, policy and procedure have become more important. There are now around 400 folk in their technology operations alone.

They have spun off other groupings like mobile, international, new products, infrastructure etc

Lessons learned?

Get a product out fast, fix it later and take advice from users.

Looking to the future?

UGC creates a long tail effect which has implications for storage

New formats - especially in video - are things to watch

Dave Burkhardt, VP Operations, Veoh:

Video is - or will be - hosted everywhere. These causes a plethora of choice for consumers and makes for a confused marketplace.

New formats - especially in video - are things to watch

Veoh gone from being in the top 1000 to top 30 most visited websites, with 15% month on month growth.

Advice: bad habits are hard to break so implement processes early on to save headaches later.

Crystal ball-gazing? By 2010, 99% of all internet traffic will be video.

Workshop central

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Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket

It's the first morning of the Summit and, up until lunchtime, there are a range of workshops available. With a choice of seven in each block, it's hard to decide which ones to go for. Having sat through a product pitch for a web 2.0 diary/planner app earlier, I'm now swithering between 'Web Two Point No: And you thought Microsoft was Bad' (good provocative title) and 'Sipping from the Search Firehose' (which sounds rather unsanitary).

Meanwhile I have had my first experience of Microsoft Silverlight with the conference mash-up which is on the plasma screens all over the place. It's a bit clunky and some of their spelling leaves something to be desired but I'm going to see how it evolves over the next few days.

Oh, and won't the conference bag be great for the beach?

Just noodling about...

In a fascinating San Francisco Chronicle article this morning, I read how Current TV (that's Al Gore's tv/web UGC hybrid) is bidding for the elusive C word - convergence - by challenging users to deliver 'assignments' to the website which may or may not end up on TV. Because, in case we didn't already know this, apparently 70% of 18-34 year olds are watching tv and 'noodling about' on their laptops at the same time. Those pesky kids.

I initially typed in 'viewers' there but that's exactly the nub of the issue - how do you combine the two so that your users become viewers - and vice versa. Confusing, isn't it? And I'm not even going to irritate you by calling them 'viewsers'...

So, TV execs throw down the creative gauntlet by asking folk to post videos on themes like 'Some companies are paying their workers to get fit' (I wish...) or 'Do you live in a megacity?'. Having broadcast - or posted - the films they like, they hope to get a conversation going around that content.

According to one of Current's co-founders, Joel Hyatt, 'The magic of the internet isn't that you can watch "Desperate Housewives" on it. It is that this is where you can engage and interact and build community and influence'.

The network's internal studies show that the average viewer to the channel watches 7.5 hours per week. Which isn't bad in amongst the hundreds of channels available on cable in the US.

What isn't clear, though, is whether those viewers are in the target age range. Because, as we all know, just creating content on a platform we know kids consume, does not mean they'll want it. The stuff has to be worth the effort to come and find...

Ligger alert!

Apparently, there are some unscrupulous internet entrepreneurs out there who'll try anything to get access to the Rich and the Powerful at the Web 2.0 Summit this week. I mean, they won't even pay the entry fee to the conference or get themselves 'invited'. All to press business cards on folk and get a free cookie. Tsk, tsk.

The Three Cs

I gave a lecture at the University of Abertay, Dundee, on Thursday night about how the web and audience behaviour are changing. It was to a mixed crowd – students from the University’s School of Computing and Creative Technologies,colleagues from the BBC and friends and family – and I rather enjoyed it. Even though there were some in the audience - mainly my older relatives - who were more there to watch me strut about in my academic gown, than listen to my views on the state of the wired world...

In looking at the differences between web 1.0 and web 2.0, I had a wander down memory lane, reminiscing about my first experiences of the internet and came up to date with a look at the BBC’s iPlayer (which comes out of beta on 1 December) and some rather funny mash-ups from You Tube.

One of the ways, I chose to describe what web 2.0 has become is by using the three Cs – control, create and connect.

Control what you watch or listen to – and when you want it. Sometimes legally - and by paying - sometimes not.

Create content – from photos on Flickr to mash-ups on You Tube. The ability to broadcast is no longer restricted to the big boys like the BBC.

Connect with people in social networking environments which become part of your daily routine online.

The fourth C - for us in mainstream media at any rate - is the challenge of building these audience behaviours into what we do, in a period of shrinking budgets and political challenge. We live in interesting times...

Let's go, Web 2! Let's go!

I found a site, via the wonders of Facebook, which is now a favourite and appears on my Blogroll regularly. It's a great primer for what web 2.0 may or may not mean - a directory of sites which all claim to be web 2.0 in look, feel or aim.

It's quite clear, looking at them, that they fall broadly into services where you can publish or share video, photos, blogs, personal details, friends, community information etc etc. You wonder how many You Tube, Flickr, Facebook wannabes can come along which will really give the Big Boys a run for their money...

Web 2.0 Summit schedule published

Big names, interesting sessions at the Summit in October. All that and a Web Bowl which not only looks challenging but is also interactive! Get your questions in now...

Web 2 take 2

And so it's back to the web 2.0 conference - sorry, Summit - in San Francisco next month. Lots of social networking stuff this time around, unsurprisingly.

To refresh my memory about the Bay Area from my last visit - in November 06 - I went here for a walk down memory lane.

And dusted down this blog so I can post again. Maybe a little more than last year.

Coffee break

The coffee area
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.

Snacks are good here. No, not this pile of lovely green mugs but endless coffee, tea, juice, water and Pepsi on tap. Oh, and this afternoon we got cookies!

And a choice of bag lunches including wraps, ciabatta and baguettes. Excellent stuff.

"Video - we just wanna watch it...

...or do we?"

The clue to the quality of this session was in its title.

Speakers from Grouper ("Watch, share, create"), Jumpcut ("Make Amazing Movies Online"), BrightRoll (couldn't find a slogan) all did big pushes for their product. Even the moderator was promoting – her company’s called Dabble ("Search, organise, collect"), which is a community around video from other hosts.

One thing which they all latched on to – which is interesting – is having users creating ads, in spaces sponsored by big-name brands. So Jumpcut (in bed with Yahoo) partnered with Doritos to have users create ads for the Superbowl - some of which are actually quite funny.

(Note to self – must check out the Apple/imploding battery situation for my powerbook. I think I’m getting third degree burns on my thighs typing in this session…)

And now we’re at the nub. What MAKES people create video? Although the guy asking this question used the verb ‘incents’. I don’t think that’s a word…

Eepybird ("Entertainment for the Curious Mind") was used as an example about why folk do this. Tends to be around money. Mmm…

Other speaker says it’s about social networking OR getting famous. Considered that getting famous is a whole different kind of product. Yes, that's right. Generally, a slicker one.

Question from the floor – where does the panel see online video going in light of the You Tube acquisition? Not unsurprisingly, the view was that there is room for lots of players, not just one channel. But each site needs to choose its focus and USP. Another speaker said that sometimes people don’t even have enough time to view 5 or 10 videos each day on You tube, Good grief – where on earth does THAT kind of behaviour leave conventional TV?

Anyhoo, moved on to next session. In the biggest meeting room in the hotel where, ironically, there’s no wireless access as its walls are marble. Web 0.25 stuff now…

Enough peripherals - on with the show

Eckart Walther and two other Yahoo colleagues expounded on their web 2.0 vision of ‘Find, use, share and expand the world’s knowledge’ . That sounds familiar to BBC thinking. Although I don’t think we were planning this level of world domination.

In the old days, we were told, a community constituted 1 creator, 10 synthesizers, 100 consumers. Message board model – one to post, 10 to contribute and 100 or so lurking about and just reading. How do we move into a web 2.0 world where 100% are creators and synthesisers and everyone consumes?

Anyone with a …. is now a …. That’s not an invite to swear; the next slide encouraged us to insert keyboard, camera, iPod, browser in the first bit and then author, photographer, musician and publisher in the second.

BUT, what happens when everyone becomes a publisher? You get You Tube and, sometimes, some pretty silly stuff.

But you also get Flickr where beautiful content gives Getty and Corbis a run for its money. Not just great content, but a community around it where the users rate it, organise it and distribute it.

The panel talked about the publisher as participant – Adobe and feed/blog. Publisher as micro-community – Nikon and photo community. Publisher as developer – publisher uses participation platform to create mash-up/new application.

Negroponte quote – ‘if I were to do Medialab all over again, it’d be less about technology and more about content and how people use and share it’.

Media progression – mass media from my media to we media. Yahoo’s new ‘food channel’ has Martha Stewart but also recipes from real people,

Marketing is just one voice of many. A slide showed a venn diagram of media influences – friends and family, media and info sources and marketing all meeting in the middle at Social Networking

A few examples of how Yahoo is extending its content partnership with users:

- Yahoo for Good partners with One.org, a non-profit organisation combatting global poverty and brings Flickr, video etc to tell many stories around one single point of view.

- What happens when Yahoo decides to do a morning show online. You get The 9 - stuff you've not heard about on the web, a short video a glam lady presenter and ugc . Oh, and it's sponsored by Pepsi.

- More corporate partnership as Yahoo teams up with Nissan to present live sets - music and fan content – blogs, photos etc around concert footage in HD. Starts with Christina Aguilera and then does Incubus.

Spectacular disaster

Having got lost trying to get to the conference this morning, despite finding it easily last night, I eventually got settled in a packed, tiny and windowless room for the first session. Gratifyingly found that that the wireless connection worked and dug into my backpack for my glasses. Which I’d forgotten to bring.

Cue panic. I’m at the back of the room, squinting myopically at the powerpoint like Muskie from Deputy Dawg. And my specs are back up two VERY steep hills in my hotel room. Damn, damn, damn…

The Conference. The Bag.

It's a bag
Originally uploaded by Blue Blanket.

The day – alright, the evening – dawned and it was time to get signed up for the web 2.0 spectacular. Schlep along to a big signing-up area, show some id, get a name badge on a lanyard (technical conference term) and your Conference Bag.

For those of you who’ve done this before, you’ll know this is a critical moment. Not only do you get a sense of how a conference will be from the bag itself – in this case, a rather nice tote with lots of pockets and in a good quality, backpack-style material – but you always have the at sense of anticipation about what’s inside.

As well as half a ton of paperwork, this included:

- Some breath mints
- A voucher for $5 for Starbucks (thank you, IBM)
- A key ring which is also a bottle opener (beer, not wine)
- Some breath freshener spray (what does this say about the conference delegates??)
- A t-shirt from someone called grassroots.org
- A neoprene latptop sleeve (cool!)
- A brush (like a shaving brush) for cleaning your keyboard and monitor

A promising start. Says the most easily-bought delegate at the Palace Hotel… However, as an old lag when it comes to conferences, here's a top tip. Once you've got all excited over your bag and its contents, don't use it during the event itself. There'll be several hundred other folk all carrying exactly the same model about and the risk of you walking off with the one belonging to the person sitting next to you at lunch or coffee is very high indeed.

Oh, and in late-breaking news, the eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that the Web 2.0 Conference has suddenly got more important. Apparently, as of this morning, it’s a Summit. Well, THAT’S impressive...

Some pre-reading

Taxi comes at 06.00 tomorrow and the long journey to the Bay Area begins. Bit of a tight turnaround at Heathrow but a morning jog never hurt anyone...

Have been amassing paperwork to read on the plane so I can begin to put some thoughts down about web 2.0 before the conference begins on Monday. Whether or not I can drag myself from the in-flight movies and delicious BA catering to do so is another matter.

However, in keeping up with what's happening in San Francisco over the past few days - and yes, checking the weather - I spotted this timely story about how some teens are beginning to rethink how much social networking they're doing online.