Web2.0

Web 2.0 was fun. The acoustics sucked (we had to yell to talk to each other at breaks the venue was sooo maxed out). The coolest things were:
Zimbra – The open source collaboration suite.
Transparensee – Discovery Search Engine that sorts results as you move little sliders.
Wink – The social search engine.
zvents – Discover events in your neighborhood.
Attention Trust – You Own: Yourself; Your data; Your attention.

Your Rights: When you give your attention to sites that adhere to the AttentionTrust, these rights are guaranteed.
Property: You own your attention and can store it wherever you wish. You have CONTROL.
Mobility: You can securely move your attention wherever you want whenever you want to. You have the ability to TRANSFER your attention.
Economy: You can pay attention to whomever you wish and receive value in return. Your attention has WORTH.
Transparency: You can see exactly how your attention is being used. You can DECIDE who you trust.

Dumbest thing said on the stage:
Bary Diller dismissed the idea that citizens with blogs and video editing software were major threats to the entertainment industry. “There is not that much talent in the world,” Diller said. “There are very few people in very few closets in very few rooms that are really talented and can’t get out.” “People with talent and expertise at making entertainment products are not going to be displaced by 1,800 people coming up with their videos that they think are going to have an appeal.” (this is excerted from Andreas Duss)
To top it off it was Echoed by Vinod Khosla the next day. I guess the big boys don’t really get it – it is like . The cool kids do so…watch out.
Reminds me of this story about denial that I just read in FAST COMPANY (one of my FAVORITE magazines)

Jon Wilkins had just finished telling a room of 100 or so of his peers that their industry is institutionally incapable of giving clients the smartest ideas. How ad agencies and media agencies that decide where ads run are built like factories, focused on one output (and that output is their handcuff). How a new model needs to emerge, one that can provide unbiased advice to marketers.
“You’re saying everything’s changing and it’s not.”
Before Wilkins could respond, one of his clients intercepted the challenge. “I used to kid myself I wasn’t going bald,” said Mark Finney, the clearly hairless head of media for Orange, Europe’s third-largest wireless carrier. “I’d pull my hair forward, I’d cover it over this way, I’d look in the mirror and think, It’s never going to happen to me. Then suddenly I started realizing I looked really stupid. . . . I hate to say it, but Jon’s right and you’re wrong. You’re covering your baldness, and at a certain point, you’re going to look stupid.”

Future Assertion of Note:
Mary Meeker talked about the future of looking for stuff.
Search, Find, and Obtain so that there will be little difference between Marketing, Advertising and Selling.
Her presentation is full of numbers worth checking out.
Acquisitions of Note:
Weblogs Inc was bought by AOL (the deal closed in July just announced though)
Upcoming.org was bought by Yahoo
Alliance of Note:
Sun – Google (comments by Johnathan CEO of Sun)
Rumor of note:
Microsoft buying AOL
Notably Absent:
Discussion of the open source platforms like Drupal that are major parts of Web 2.0 (the people collaborating) and the communities of developers and small businesses around them. I guess cause they are open source and they don’t have thousands to shell out the Tim and John they don’t rate. Hopefully we can do a conference with the cool kids building open source ecologies.