Archive for May, 2007
by Kevin Werbach
May 15, 2007 at 8:49 pm · Filed under
Supernova08
Dan Scheinman is a Senior VP and head of the new Media Solutions Group at Cisco. Many people are wondering why Cisco, which is known for making routers and other network infrastructure, has recently been acquiring social networking and collaboration companies. Dan formerly oversaw Cisco’s M&A efforts, and spearheaded the acquisitions of Linksys and Scientific Atlanta, so it’s not surprising that he’s putting together pieces to make Cisco a major player in the digital media ecosystem. But how do those pieces fit together?
Cisco is a major player in the Internet economy, so their strategy (right or wrong) says something about the current state of the industry. The transformation of media is more than just an issue for content and advertising companies. It has major implications for every layer of the network. In this podcast interview, Dan explains how the digital media landscape is evolving, and what it means for users, equipment vendors, content creators, and service providers.
Dan Scheinman Supernova podcast:
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by Kevin Werbach
May 15, 2007 at 12:53 pm · Filed under
Mixers, Supernova07
A reminder—the pre-Supernova New York mixer is tonight at Gallery Bar. And our San Francisco mixer is next Wednesday, May 23, at Sugar Cafe.
Both should be a good time, and some excellent networking. See you there!
by supernova
May 15, 2007 at 9:55 am · Filed under
Supernova07
Last March at the Community 2.0 conference, I moderated a panel on how companies can use communities in their new product development processes. A a main theme sounded not just in my panel, but throughout that conference, was the notion of value. I’m seeing that theme pop up in nearly all of the posts in this conversation. And not just *where’s* the value, but also *how* is value created for all the different community members?
When Kevin Werbach says here that he sees the New Network as a “broader concept than [fill-in-the-blank] 2.0, because it’s less about comparisons with the past, and more about describing the future,” what I read there is that [fill-in-the-blank] 2.0 may perhaps be more about technology upgardes and the New Network may be more about the value proposition for those in the network. Says Kevin,
“If the starting point is a broadband Internet, with massive aggregation and services platforms like Google, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!, and a host mechanisms for linking data in powerful ways, what appears now that couldn’t take hold before?”
The answer is, whatever those in the network find of value to them.
Then, in Kevin Werbach’s podcast interview with Google’s Sheryl Sandberg, she pinpoints the different approach Google brought to advertising in terms of value—rather than simply selling advertising space, Google consciously placed a higher value on the space by making sure that ads provided relevant information for people at the very point where they would need it. Shifting the value proposition from the advertisers to the users/readers was a radical move.
In a later post, Mitch Ratcliffe says of community,
“Traditional ownership roles are besnargled by the value inherent in each participant’s contribution that adds up to the value of the whole system. This means that the “asset” traditionally thought to be owned by investors is only a part—and, typically, a small part—of the value people come to expect from the site, service or product that is the iware system.”
What he’s saying, I think, is that we don’t really understand where all of the members and sponsors of a community will find value. And perhaps that the value proposition is likely to be different for different kinds of communities, even or different members of the same community—a level of complexity that will have to be navigated by both businesses trying to figure out how to grow and innovate in this new world, and also by individuals. We’re already doing it, making decisions every day about how and on what we want to spend our time, attention, and creativity.
by Kevin Werbach
May 15, 2007 at 7:23 am · Filed under
Supernova08
With his popular blog, Rough Type, and his best-seller, Does IT Matter?, Nicholas Carr has established himself as perhaps the leading skeptic of “peer production”, social media, and other business extensions of the web 2.0 wave. Yet he’s far from a Luddite. In fact, when I first met him, as the editor of my Harvard Business Review article on syndication as a model for e-business, he was technology optimist. He still is. He just has a strong, well-thought-out perspective on where technology actually adds value for business… and where we’ve been misled by hype and the narrow experiences of small communities.
In our conversation, Nick explains his views on the dark side of web 2.0, and on the future of information technology.
Nicholas Carr Supernova interview:
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by Kevin Werbach
May 11, 2007 at 7:37 pm · Filed under
Supernova08
Sheryl Sandberg is the VP of Global Online Sales & Operations at Google. What that dull title doesn’t tell you is that she was the primary executive who built Google’s advertising business, the source of virtually all the company’s astonishing revenues and profits. Having seen Google grow from a small search engine startup to a dominant Internet player, Sheryl still sees new opportunities for Google, as well as other companies looking to monetize e-commerce and digital media.
In our conversation, Sheryl talks about the future of online advertising, the impact of changing media models on both users and content providers, the nature of network businesses, and what makes Google, well, Google.
Sheryl Sandberg Supernova interview:
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by Kevin Werbach
May 10, 2007 at 10:57 pm · Filed under
Supernova07
What are some of the Grand Challenges that should capture our imagination and bring us all together in collaborative efforts when we look at the future from the vantage point of May 2007? What all-important and near-impossible new problems can we now tackle, given the incredible progress we have made in technology, especially information technologies, in the last twenty years? Let me summarize, in no particular priority, the five such grand challenge problems that are top of mind for me personally.
Human-Oriented Complex Systems: I am fascinated by the impact of IT, the Internet and related systems capabilities on people-based organizations, including companies, industry ecosystems and economies. I really believe that we are at the brink of a technology-based revolution that could have the same kind of profound influence on all aspects of business, society and our personal lives that the Industrial Revolution had on previous generations. This time, the revolution is not about applying technology to the design and manufacture of physical things, rather it is about applying technology to human-based organizations of all kinds - thus transforming the very nature of enterprises, economies, and work itself.
Information-based Healthcare: There are two complementary challenges associated with healthcare and related areas. The first is research-oriented. In the 20th century, physics was viewed as the key discipline pushing the boundaries of computational sciences. That role has been now taken over by biology, and more specifically computational biology and bioinformatics. They hold the promise of revolutionizing the practice of medicine, by, for example, enabling us to use genomics information for personalized patient care, and mapping the human brain so we can better understand and treat psychiatric disorders like autism, schizophrenia and depression.
Then there are the very practical challenges facing healthcare today including efficiency, costs, safety and capacity. Most industries are way ahead of healthcare in successfully applying methodologies like Lean Production and Six Sigma to systematically improve their processes. The healthcare industry must embrace such engineering and management practices to achieve continuous improvements in key measures like clinical outcomes, patient safety, and productivity.
Learning in the Knowledge-based Age: It should not come as a surprise that as we move to an increasingly knowledge-based, fast changing economy, lifelong learning is more important than ever. Learning is now not just something we do in school when we are young, but rather, something we have to continue to do all through our lives if we hope to keep up with the constantly changing skills requirements of the marketplace.
The Web has become a wonderful platform for learning, in particular its evolution into a collaborative and highly visual platform through Web 2.0 and Virtual Worlds capabilities respectively. Such new IT-based learning applications could help workers acquire the required training for new jobs in a more experiential, “hands-on” way. They could also help us better reach out to children with disabilities who have trouble reading and processing verbal language, as well as to any children that for whatever reason are not responding well to existing teaching methods.
The Search for Clean, Plentiful Energy: Energy may very well be the single biggest problem facing humanity. The world faces major challenges in finding reliable supplies of energy, and reducing the environmental impact of energy production and use. Energy is also directly linked to some of the toughest problems we face in the 21st century, such as water, food, poverty, transportation, terrorism and war.
A number of major efforts are aimed at obtaining cheap, clean energy from renewable sources, such as wind, water and solar power. Biofuels are one of the most exciting such efforts, but require considerable scientific and engineering advances, such as devising new technologies to enhance and accelerate the conversion of organic matter to biofuel molecules and using modern plant science to develop species that produce a higher yield of energy molecules and can be grown on land not suitable for food production.
The Long, Cultural War: National security used to primarily mean having a strong military that hopefully serves mostly as a deterrent, but that can quickly be deployed and win whatever wars and skirmishes arise around the world. This is absolutely necessary - but no longer sufficient. The conflicts in which we now increasingly find ourselves are much more complex, spread out across the globe, and involve a variety of enemies organized into small groups that are usually integrated into the local civilian populations.
The Long War is the name that the US Military has appropriately given to this different kind of 21st century conflict. The Long War has the feel of a battle of civilizations or cultures. It is fast changing and difficult to plan; with a need to focus on people and cultures not just on weapons. New tools and skills are needed to fight such a global, complex, information-intensive and unpredictable long war. The Web’s role as a global platform helping people around the world to communicate, share information, and self-organize may very well be the ultimate weapon in the Long War.
All these Grand Challenge problems share a few key characteristics. They are very, very difficult, requiring heroic breakthroughs from groups in multiple disciplines working closely together around the world. They must have a significant scientific, economic and/or social impact. But, perhaps most important, they must capture our imaginations, so we become enthralled by the possibilities and find within ourselves something that lets us achieve the near impossible.
by Kevin Werbach
May 10, 2007 at 6:12 am · Filed under
Mixers, Supernova07
For those in the Bay Area, we will be hosting a mixer on Wednesday, May 23, in San Francisco. Like the May 15 mixer in New York, this will be an informal opportunity to network with interesting entrepreneurs, executives, press, developers, bloggers, and other industry leaders. Details and RSVP information at:
http://www.socialtext.net/sfmixer
Please be sure to RSVP, as we will have to close the list once we hit the cutoff of the venue.
by supernova
May 10, 2007 at 5:03 am · Filed under
Supernova07
The Network is People
Hi, I’m Deborah Schultz (aka Deb) and I’m joining Renee, Suw and Kevin as one of the hosts here at the Conversation Hub. I can usually be found pontificating and connecting in the “real world” as well as blogging over on my own blog about social software, technology and marketing, as well as the occasional esoteric tidbit.
I’ve been attending Supernova for years and have always taken away some great “content and contacts” to chew on. As a matter of fact it was at Supernova four years ago that I first sat down with Ben & Mena in a hotel lobby to chat about Six Apart and next thing I new I was living in San Francisco and working there [things like that happen at Supernova].
I live at the intersection of technology, creativity and connectivity. As a natural uber-connector and communicator, technology simply enhances and magnifies this ability. The “New Network” enriches my life tremendously and at the same time it adds some unique challenges. As a strategist and advisor to companies, I am often asked about specific tools and features. This is only natural, as the landscape is genuinely confusing. However, I think some of the biggest challenges we currently face are not learning new technologies but learning new modes of behavior.
This year Kevin and Jeanne asked me to formally work on the conference and I jumped at the chance. I am especially thrilled to curate the “Markets & Relationships” track with Jeanne as it addresses many issues that are near and dear to my heart, including the impact the New Network is having on how individuals and companies interact and the need for smarter more genuine interactions moving forward. Traditional roles, organizational structures and behaviors are breaking down and reformulating in exciting new ways. But a “behavioral code of conduct” has not yet been codified into our individual or corporate DNA. We face a myriad of challenges that include:
- How do we handle the current onslaught of information?
- How do we develop meaningful connections with all the individuals available to us in the flattening world of the New Network? Do we want or need to?
- How do we deal appropriately with the amplification and distortion of encoded modes of behavior online versus off-line?
- Who owns my online data?
- Who sets the standards?
- How do I ensure access to the Network now that my living breathing existence is more reliant on connectivity than ever?
- And, once we have identified all these issues, how do we find a common language from which to address the confusion?
These are BIG questions being passionately discussed and debated across the globe and across the blogosphere. Alas, Supernova is only 3 days long. Our goal with starting this blog was to get the ball rolling, jump-start the great hallway conversations now and do our best to capture the zeitgeist of the moment.
In the spirit of the theme of the conference, we encourage everyone to contribute, not just the speakers and the moderators. People drive the New Network, so we are inviting any impassioned interested parties to speak up; it will be fun to see where it takes us.
For starters, if you are already blogging about any of the themes of this year’s conference we suggest adding the Technorati tag “supernova07” & “conversationhub” to your posts. Think of it as a way to virtually raise your hand in the blogosphere.
Let the conversations begin.
by supernova
May 8, 2007 at 10:24 pm · Filed under
Supernova07
Hi, I’m Suw Charman and I’m joining Renee and Kevin as one of the hosts here at Conversation Hub. I can usually be found, along with my partner Kevin Anderson, blogging on Strange Attractor about social software, the media, journalism, productivity and anything else that takes our fancy.
I’m really looking forward to getting my teeth into the issues raised by this year’s Supernova - I grapple daily with many of them. My jobs as a social software consultant wouldn’t be possible without the networks that Kevin mentions in his post What is the New Network?. Social networks, virtual communications networks and information networks shape my both my personal and professional worlds.
As a digital rights activist - I co-founded the UK’s digital rights organisation, the Open Rights Group - I deal with the infinite transmissibility of data and content over these networks and the impact that is having on our civil, human and consumer rights. As business models crumble, industry bodies turn to legislation and litigation to prop up their bottom line instead of embracing the opportunities that new technologies create.
Indeed, one of the biggest problems I face, both in my professional and activist lives, is helping people who are alarmed by all these changes to think beyond their own paradigm and to let go of their neophobia.
The future is bright. But how do we distribute it a bit more evenly?
by Kevin Werbach
May 3, 2007 at 4:59 am · Filed under
Supernova07
The theme for Supernova 2007 is “Defining the New Network.” What does that mean?
The basic concept is simple. Networks are central to everything significant in technology today. There are physical networks (the Internet, the telephone system, wireless links), virtual communications networks (Skype, Fon), social networks (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn), advertiser networks (Google AdSense), information networks (Digg, Craigslist, Wikipedia), and video content networks (YouTube, Joost), to name just a few. Not to mention networks of organizations, of systems, and of people (like the Supernova community itself).
About 15 years ago, two monumental shifts began. The personal computer went from being an isolated device for individuals to a node in a global network of networks. And the telephone went from being a dumb network endpoint to a powerful computer in its own right. These changes created pressure to restructure both the infrastructure linking all those devices, as well as the software stacks and end-user services on top of them. We take it for granted now, but it’s utterly remarkable that I can pull a mobile phone out of my pocket and speak to three billion people, or type a search query to scan the full text of billions of documents on computers around the world, or run an entire business on remote web-based tools.
So, what now?
The networks we depend on today could only take root with enough available and affordable computing power, bandwidth, and storage. Yet those networks are also the precursors for further developments. The PC and the phone were the starting points for today’s ubiquitous Internet, which is tearing apart industries like telecom, media, enterprise software, games, and retailing like (to borrow the title of a paper I once wrote) a digital tornado. If the starting point is a broadband Internet, with massive aggregation and services platforms like Google, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!, and a host mechanisms for linking data in powerful ways, what appears now that couldn’t take hold before?
The New Network is broader than [fill-in-the-blank] 2.0, because it’s less about comparisons with the past, and more about describing the future. Developments like virtual worlds, social networks, federated digital identity systems, search engine marketing, microblogging, zombie botnets, conversational marketing, and data centers in shipping containers don’t have clear antecedents, nor are they just about user control and open standards.
To understand the New Network, we must step back and reconsider every aspect of the technology-driven world, from the physical attributes of the Internet to the ways of turning content into revenue. And, we need to challenge ourselves not to be complacent. Huge legal, economic, moral, technical, social, and strategic questions cloud the future of every corner of the technology, media, and telecom worlds. Optimism is warranted, but so is a sense of urgency to tackle the hard problems.
That is the starting point for Supernova 2007. In future posts, I’ll dive into the sessions and agenda in more detail.
For now, I welcome your comments and feedback. Is this a useful way to think about the challenges companies will face in the next several years? What other unappreciated developments do you see as part of the New Network? And what topics should we be sure to cover at the conference?
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