Edwin Aoki is a technology fellow at AOL and in this presentation, he talks about the scale behind AOL’s instant messaging platform (AIM).
Didn’t think a messaging platform could detect patterns on broadcast television? Then think again.
AIM is one of those underestimated technologies that keeps on growing and with over 14 million users, now commands the number 3 position in the global messaging market.
This session was presented by Steve Pearman, one of Tom Anderson’s top deputies (he’s currently SVP of Product Strategy).
Anderson is one of the co-founders of the social networking juggernaut, along with Chris DeWolfe.
Pearman rattles off some amazing numbers. Like 117 million unique users in March 08, 100 billion rows of data which can be mined anyway they like (not a typo, it reads “billions”), 85 gigs of bandwith, 50 million messages a day and so on.
Son of a bitch, that’s big.
If ever you needed a real live example of what scale means on the internet, then MySpace is it.
O’Reilly Media, as a major publishing group, clearly has a “roster” of preferred speakers - who incidentally, have their books published by O’Reilly Publishing.
Makes sense.
Clay Shirky is one smart dude.
His presentation to the core audience of Web 2.0 was one of the stronger ones. Shirky is well regarded as a writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies.
And anyone who begins a speech talking about alcohol is alright by me!. More on Clay at his website here and here.
From the speaker profile section of the Web 2.0 Expo website.
As the leader of the Mozilla Project, Mitchell Baker is responsible for organizing and motivating a massive, worldwide collective of employees and volunteers who are breathing new life into the Internet with the Firefox Web browser and other Mozilla products.
Baker was born and raised in Berkeley, California, receiving her BA in Asian Studies from UC Berkeley and her JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law. Her law career included working for Sun Microsystems and Netscape. She has also sat on the board of the Open Source Applications Foundation.
Baker has been the general manager of the Mozilla project since 1999, helping shape the license under which Netscape’s source code was released. In 2003, she became president and founder of the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to openness and innovation on the Internet. In 2005, Baker led the creation of Mozilla Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. Baker served as as CEO of the corporation until January 2008, when Mozilla’s rapid growth encouraged her to shift her focus back to the scope and mission of the project. As Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, Baker continues her commitment to an open, innovative Web and the infinite possibilities it presents.
TIME Magazine profiled Baker under “Scientists and Thinkers” in its 2005 TIME 100. She has also appeared on “The Charlie Rose Show” and “CNN Global Office” to discuss open source software and the Firefox phenomenon.
I always reckon when you are presented with the opportunity to listen to a billionaire talk, you should take it.
I can’t have been the only one to think this - as there were about 5,000 other people sitting beside me during the keynote at Web 2.0 with Marc Andreessen.
Marc has been instrumental in driving the internet and came to fame with the sale of Netscape (the company he co-founded) to AOL for the princely sum of $4.2 billion dollars back in 1999. That was when the US dollar actually meant something.
Many observers of the net were puzzled that someone of Andreessen’s intelligence, insight and ruthless conviction didn’t jump into the blogosphere sooner than he did. His blog launched in July 2007, not even a year ago.
But already it is one of the most read blogs in the industry and has a huge following. As it should.
Marc is an exceptional writer. I wish I could write with that level of clarity and consistency. And amazing attention to detail. Some of his posts are more like a thesis. You should just read what he thinks of the US financial sector.
Marc is one of those guys you just pray would be sitting beside you on a flight from Australia to London. Except for the fact that mortals like you and me probably don’t travel too often in a Gulfstream. Anyway.
John Battelle did a cool job of the interview (as usual). It would be good to be that well connected.
You should watch this session from start to finish. And be ready for “the nuclear winter…” You’ll understand after you’ve seen the video.
This session proved so popular last year, that the event organisers ran it again this year.
Essentially, budding young start-ups get 5 minutes each to present to the audience and to a panel of hardened venture capitalists. The audience then gets to decide the best pitch after each presentation.
Moderated by John Battelle and Brady Forrest, the session attracted big numbers and was held in the main ballroom of Moscone West.
At this year’s Launch Pad, 6 finalists presented their case.
To be honest, I didn’t get all of them but the one I liked best (along with the rest of the audience) was a company called Triggit, which is all about “website monetization made simple”. As soon as the guys from Triggit demonstrated their application using “drag and drop”, the audience had their “ah-hah” moment.
Battelle and Forrest did a good job of keeping the pace of the whole thing.
My takeaway from all of this. If you’ve only got 5 minutes to present to 500 people and a judging panel, people won’t remember your slides.
They will however, remember your marketing - and the guys from Triggit just happened to be wearing very loud red shirts with their logo emblazoned on the front. True, their product was simple to understand and their website straight to the point.
I have to be careful what I say here because the O’Reilly folks were kind enough to grant me a Media Pass this year. So I can’t really launch into a tirade against the man, otherwise the only Web 2.0 event I’ll ever be invited to in the future is the Web 2.0 event scheduled for Uzbekistan in 2056.
Or something like that.
Yet, everytime I see Tim O’Reilly present, it looks like he just flew in the same clothes, halfway round the world while consuming 3 bottles of vodka. In economy. And on Aeroflot.
He comes across as this dishevelled, mad professor.
Billy Connolly calls it “the wind-swept and interesting” look. Anyway.
There is, however, nothing wind swept about O’Reilly the businessman. And this event is clearly no fluke. The logistics and planning commence 6 months out from the day it starts. And safe to say 10,000 people (conference attendees as well as Expo exhibitors) pass through their turnstiles.
They have the marketing of Web 2.0 down to a fine art. And to the casual observer, everything runs like clockwork. Which is no mean feat when you deal with this many people, this many ego’s and a venue the size and scale of Moscone (over 2 million square feet of building with in excess of 700,000 square feet of actual conference space).
O’Reilly is never short on opinion. Especially about where the web is headed. He’s even credited with coining the phrase “Web 2.0″. Industry experts refer to the “O’Reilly Radar” - which is O’Reilly’s knack for predicting where the industry is heading.
As an outsider looking in, I don’t think O’Reilly is the typically driven Silicon Valley businessman, looking for the next big score. This article about him in Wired, talked about O’Reilly the passionate father, husband, son and student. And while I’ve never met the man, I have a deeper respect for what he stands for and what he’s achieved. The article, while 3 years old, is well worth the read.
What then, was the essence of his Opening Address at the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo?
Simply this.
That the internet is becoming the platform. That the real heart of Web 2.0 is collective intelligence, harnessing network effects to build applications that get better the more people use them.
Interestingly enough, Microsoft released this week their version of the platform and their admission that they want to dominate “the cloud” space. Called Microsoft “Live Mesh”. I’ll have to admit though - as soon as the Product Manager came on stage and started getting nearly excited as Steve Ballmer does when Google’s earnings come out, I switched off. Entirely. I’m also a converted serial Mac user, so nothing Redmond says or does really registers.
Tim O’Reilly is clearly one of the industry’s pioneers, one of it’s main thought leaders. The more I think of it, he is the “Yoda” of the valley. And people listen.
This was a first for me. Talking to a real life Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist.
David Hornik has a great sense of humour. Which he’s not supposed to have. First off, he’s a lawyer by trade. Second, he went to Oxford in London to study (he has 3 degrees). And third, he’s a VC in “the Valley”.
David is clearly a smart guy. And very plugged into the tech sector (which is what August Capital focuses on).
It’s a good read and I really resonate with David about what it takes to keep blogging.
I really enjoyed the chat. You’ll have to excuse the background noise but we were in “the bloggers lounge”, which is a dedicated hang-out for all the bloggers at the Expo. It’s a great idea and there were guys streaming video, putting together podcasts and simply posting live from the event.
David passed on some solid advice for entrepreneurs wanting to “get funded”. I truly do appreciate him taking the time to chat with me.
He was also a lot of fun at the session directly after this - which was the Launch Pad session (coming up soon).
Charlene Li from Forrester interviews Max Levchin from Slide at the first Keynote of the Expo.
I only recently learned who Max was - which is probably the way he likes it. Fame and fortune came his way with the creation of PayPal and he gracefully exited PayPal with US$1.5 billon of eBay’s money.
Most entrepreneurs in the room breathed a collective sigh of relief when Max recounted the 4 failed start-ups and an obliterated credit history before finding success with PayPal.
He’s clearly excited about the future of Slide. Who wouldn’t be given the mass exposure their applications receive within Facebook. According tho the Slide website they reach 144 million global viewers each and every month and have 30% of the US internet audience. (Slide make those zany applications like Funwall and Superpoke).
Max strikes me as still the sort of guy who doesn’t really know what all the fuss is about, is clearly uncomfortable about the fame and attention and simply wants to get on with his quiet world domination plans.
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