Next Tuesday (June 3) from 9am-11am PT (12pm-2pm ET), we’ll be hosting an interactive conference call and chat on “Open Flow” — the technologies and business practices that allow information to move freely between users, websites, and organizations. This is a precursor to the track at Supernova 2008, sponsored by BT.
The call is open to anyone interested. To receive dial-in information, please RSVP by email to openflow@supernova2008.com.
Topics we plan to address on the call will include: What are the key issues around interconnecting social networks, identity systems, and online applications? Is openness always a good thing? How do open networks change business models, as well as processes within companies? What new opportunities emerge in an Open Flow environment?
In this video, Kevin Werbach, Supernova 2008’s organizer, discusses the latest information about the conference, speakers, and the theme for this year’s event.
I just wanted to point out several great posts that are out there after last Thursday’s Supernova mixer at Wharton West in San Francisco.
Jeremiah Owyang, web strategist, was a featured discussion leader and posted at length about the evening, including photos. Jeremiah led the audience in a discussion about the Social Graph.
He lists some points that were made by the audience during the discussion, including:
- how to attract and keep participants (good user experience, limit spam, encourage the niche, improve the infrastructure with standards and APIs);
- how social networks can monetize (ads, downloading, subscription, ecommerce, market research);
- and the future of social networks (a few big players and lots of niches, teens drive adoption, mobile, aggregation).
It strikes me that many of these points about social networks are really the same points we could make (and probably have) about websites generally. Plus ca change…
Renee Blodgett posted her thoughts about the other discussion session, led by Internet guru Jerry Michalski, on new business and ad models. Some of the points she picked up on include:
- it’s all about virality or “what catches on”
- catchy jingles that grab the public’s attention rely on everyone watching the same three TV channels and are going the way of the dinosaur
- buying behavior is changing
- future lies in innovation, experimentation, listening, relationships, delivering on your promises
- strongest consumer is women over 30 but funded ideas are coming from men under 25 (Mary Hodder)
Renee then posted some portrait photos she took at the event. My personal favorite is one she didn’t take (because she’s in it). There’s cool-as-a-cucumber Renee looking for all the world like one of the Ramones and Rohit Khare with a skeptical little grin on his face. What was the photographer saying to get this reaction from these two?
I’ll cover some more mixer posts in my next update.
Thanks, everyone, for a stimulating evening! We had a great turnout, and some really interesting and wide-ranging conversations. Not to mention that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves a great deal.
There were two wide-ranging discussions, on Business in a Networked World (moderated by Jerry Michalski) and Leveraging the Social Graph (moderated by Jeremiah Owyang). What struck me in both conversations was how much uncertainty and disagreement there is about where things are going. We can all see that social technologies and pervasive network connectivity will affect every part of our lives. How, though, isn’t so clear. Will we all use many social networks, or a few? Will mobile phones replace PCs as the nexus of activity? Will we all feel comfortable living our lives in public? Will established companies be able to adapt to the new environment? And will the turbulence in US financial markets halt the growth of Internet-based innovation for the next few years?
All good questions, and I don’t claim to have all the answers. I started Supernova as a forum to consider these kinds of issues. I’m more jazzed than ever to do that at this year’s conference in June.
For those interested, Jeremiah’s slides are available for download. Thanks to Jeremiah, and to Jerry Michalski, for a great job. And thanks to everyone who was there last night.
Tonight’s Supernova Wharton mixer kicks off the Supernova season. Supernova 2008’s theme, Challenges For the Network Age, gets launched in style with a sold-out conversation with Jerry Michalski and Jeremiah Owyang, social media and Internet industry analysts extraordinaire.
One of the liveliest sessions at this year’s Supernova conference was Assistant US Secretary of Commerce John Kneuer’s talk. Kneuer suggested that market forces would ensure effective broadband competition, and encouraged the technology industry to participate in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction. Several audience members challenged him during the Q&A. An impassioned, yet substantive, discussion on broadband policy and network neutrality followed.
It’s not clear which is a crazier idea: making computers understand the nuances of human language, or building a startup search engine to compete with Google and other entrenched giants. PowerSet is trying to do both. Even in its pre-launch stage, the startup is generating significant buzz for its technology and backers, as well as the massive opportunities if it can deliver on its ambitious goals.
In this conversation, I speak with PowerSet CEO Barney Pell about the future of search, the Semantic Web, Web 2.0, and just how our interactions with computers might improve in the coming years.
We are thrilled to announce the 2007 Supernova/TechCrunch Connected Innovators, selected from over 120 applicants to present at this year’s conference:
These startups all have extraordinary potential to create new markets and shape the connected future. Most are making significant announcements at Supernova. Find out more on Thursday, June 21!
Hi, I’m Renee Hopkins Callahan, most often seen in the blogosphere over at IdeaFlow, a blog mainly focused on creativity and innovation. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to be one of the hosts for this conversation on Supernova 2007.
So, how does one host a blog conversation (not exactly a top-down hierarchical type of communication!), especially when that blog conversation is about an event that itself brings together “business, government, and technology thought leaders to understand how decentralization and pervasive connectivity are changing our world”?
The title of my own blog — IdeaFlow — will tell you my approach. I’d like to find some of the ideas and the people behind those ideas to bring into this conversational flow, tossing interesting and provocative stuff into the conversation in an effort to illuminate the themes of Supernova 2007 in the weeks leading up to the conference and throughout the conference as well.
According to the agenda Kevin Werback has posted, Supernova’s all about questioning assumptions about the future of technology and how it will affect business and society. And as we’re questioning assumptions, it shouldn’t go unnoted that technologically driven decentralization is already causing many businesses to question their own assumptions about their very business models and in some cases, even their reason for being. Take, for instance, media, marketing, and innovation process — my professional areas of experience — all of them shuddering from the seismic shifts of technologically driven decentralization. As you might expect, I’ll write about these.
However, I’m a curious sort, so I’ll be posting links to and insights gleaned from blogs, articles, books, and podcasts on many topics, with an eye toward nurturing and furthering the conversation leading up to Supernova 2007. Your insights, observations, and assumption-questioning comments are all welcome, of course. Let the conversation begin!
