Announcing Supernova 2007
by Kevin Werbach
Another year, another Supernova.It’s hard to believe it has been six years since a group of innovators and influencers gathered for the first Supernova conference in Palo Alto, CA. It’s equally surprising that the topics we covered then remain so fresh—social software such as blogs as wikis as platforms for media and information-sharing, the potential of rich Internet applications, the impending explosion of broadband video, the power of user-generated content, mobile devices as new platforms, and search engines as the hubs of entire new economies.
For me, 2007 is the best of times and the worse of times in the technology world. There’s lots of activity, lots of excitement, lots of money, and many great companies and entrepreneurs doing their thing. At the same time, there’s less deep innovation, more economic concentration, and more hype about what are ultimately small niches than any of us would like to admit. Supernova is about the future, and how we’re going to create it. The present (and the past!) are good leading indicators, but they aren’t the whole story.
So, the emphasis at this year’s Supernova is on challenges. I want to bring together the true innovators with the real provocateurs, and unleash them in dynamic conversations. We can all sense that we’re in the midst of something really big. Bigger than the Web, and therefore bigger than the second version of the Web (or the third, or the fourth…). We need to define just what that something, which I’m calling the New Network, really encompasses. At Supernova 2007, we’ll dig deeply into that question.
Join us June 20-22, in San Francisco, CA.
