Daily Archives: March 20, 2006

Web 2.0 at MIX06. Mike to Yellow Pages “You are DEAD!”

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You couldn’t have picked a better panel for Web 2.0 than here at MIX06. Tim O’Reilly, who was/is the closest thing to Mr. Web 2.0 until perhaps Michael Arrington who was also on the panel along with Jeremy Zawodny from Yahoo, Royal Faros of Microsoft’s new messenger initiatives (which look really neat), and Ebay’s Adam Trachtenberg.

Of course as with all things Web 2.0 one left more confused than before the session, but that goes with the territory these days. Monetization is unclear even for companies that are cited as “successes” in the space such as delicious and flickr.

My favorite quote of the conference was Arrington to the Canadian Yellow Pages company asking how they could morph into a 2.0 company. “You are dead!” he said, I think meaning that UNLESS they changed their old style, usurous advertising fees, yellow page publishing empire would be overrun by Web 2.0s. He even felt EBAY was at risk, feeling they are protective of their 1.0 status.
I’m not so sure about that – in fact I’m increasingly skeptical of Web 2.0 as an easily monetizable phenomenon even as I am more convinced than ever that it’s a profound change in communication, information, and global community.

Mix06 = Web 1.9

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OK I’m starting to grok the conference and the MS role in 2.0 …. maybe….. I got a chance to ask Tim O’Reilly to help me interpret Bill Gates’ answers to Tim’s excellent questions to Bill at this morning’s keynote. Most important to me was this simple question:
“Does Microsoft ‘get’ Web 2.0?”.

“parts of it…” was Tim’s excellent summary of the situation I see unfolding before me here at MIX.

I’m seeing good stuff – maybe some great stuff once I have a chance to play with some of the new applications like ATLAS and Windows Presentation Foundation – and I’m seeing enthusiastic MS folks who know they must come up with great aps and must overcome the Google “coolness” challenge in the developer community, but I’m not feeling anything like the energy at Mashup Camp where developers were simply on fire with new ideas that embraced the new Web with the excitement of the early years when the internet wasn’t about money, it was about … profound innovation and change.

So this is Web 1.9, and if I were an MS shareholder I think I’d be OK with that. The path to Web 2.0 riches is VERY unclear.

Mixed feelings about MIX06

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OK, it’s still WAY too early to tell, but I can’t help but feel a bit like this conference is Microsoft *pretending* to care/respect the changes swirling about and typically called “Web 2.0” rather than *really* caring.

In response to O’Reilly’s request for an appearance at his November conference, Chairman Bill said “maybe it’ll be Web 3.0 by then”. I think this remark was telling in that Bill sees all this as “more of the same” rather than what many would describe as a significant shift in direction – the beginning of a world of ubiquitous connectivity, community, and voice.

Are blogs and mashups just clever little devices or are they a window into human info evolution? I’m kind of thinking if you belive the former you should tie your rowboat to the USS Microsoft ship of change but if the latter you should be cautious and just … keep … rowing and fishing for the exploding number of competing technologies that seem to be adapted more specifically for and with respect for the implications of Web 2.0.

But jeez, I haven’t even been to the party yet at TAO, the Venetian’s monstrous nightclub. That’ll change my perspective….?….

Atlas and AJAX

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… talking up Atlas now with the geeky demo.  If this makes AJAX more accessible rather than creating just another MS overlay to learn it could be great.
My favorite conference quote so far by the Atlas guy:
“it’s hard to type when you have 5 cups of coffee in you – fast but not accurate”

IE7 plus Vista are looking good at MIX06

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Here at MIX06 we’re getting early views of how IE7 will interface with the web.  The security items look robust yet simple.  Anti phishing is strong and “trusted sites” will show in green in address bar.  More money for verisign but that’s OK if we can get rid of the junk.

I remain concerned MS may have been so worried about all the security problems with IE that these items may eclipse what I’m more interested in at this conference – API and Web 2.0 and mashup support from MS.

MIX06 – Bill Gates on Web 2.0

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Here at MIX06 in Las Vegas we’ve learned that the MS vision of Web 2.0 remains…. unclear.   Bill Gates shared his enthusiasm for upcoming MS products like the Vista OS, and now Dean H is talking up IE7.

O’Reilly asked great Web 2.0 questions but I’m not clear that Bill sees this as the new world – more as a rapidly evolving extension of the world MS helped pioneer over the past decades.

MIX06 lesson ONE. Don’t walk to the strip from the Airport….

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Yes, I have been to vegas several times but after finding that the stupid strip shuttles they have from the Airport could take an hour to get to my place I thought “hey, I’ll just WALK”. I walk about 2-3 miles every day so how far could it be? FAR. I suppose if I had not had backpack and a suitcase it would have not been all that bad -approx 3-4 miles I’d estimate. I walked for about 90 minutes.

But the good news is I’ve got all that excersize under my belt and now I can eat with reckless abandon. I was here in November for WebmasterWorld and boy was the food and drink ….. GOOD.

And more good news is there are some WIFI spots here so I don’t have to sign up for the usurous 9.95 per day at the Imperial Palace. I’m with Scoble in being pissed at all the high WIFI charges at Airports and Hotels. At SLC Airport I couldn’t even use the spring PCS WIFI because though I’m a sprint customer, and a PCS Vision subscriber, I’m NOT a SPRINT+ PCS VISION+ WIFI subscriber.

Show me some ads and give me free WIFI!