We’re at the Palace Hotel for day two of for the 2011 Web 2.0 Summit, where the lineup for the next three days consists of almost everyone on the entire Internet. The. entire. Internet. In case you didn’t get to be a part of the in-person action, you and your friends at home can follow along from the Livestream above, starting at 1130 a.m. PST.
Today’s speaker highlights include the Founder and CEO of Dell, Michael Dell, Foursquare Co-founder Dennis Crowley, Andreessen Horowitz General Partner, Ben Horowitz, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. It’s a star-studded lineup and should be a very exciting and fast-paced day. → Read More
Last week, we invited big-thinkers Reid Hoffman and Tim O’Reilly into the TechCrunch Studios to talk about Hoffman’s definition of “Web 3.0″– a torrent of innovation that’s going to be unleashed by all of this personal data being collected about us. In the first segment we talked about the scary implications of this wave of companies, and in the second segment we talked about the sometimes-futuristic, exciting ways data could make our lives better.
In this segment, I ask the two whether Web 3.0 is here now. The answer is yes and no. Like the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 the lines are blurred, with some companies– like Google back then and Groupon today– straddling two worlds. But the two are making investments in uber-data-centric companies now. → Read More
It’s time for the much-awaited part two of our sit down with Internet big-thinkers Reid Hoffman and Tim O’Reilly. We invited the two in the studio last week to talk about what Hoffman has called “Web 3.0″– the use of an explosion of data being collected about our real lives online.
Last week, we talked about the undeniably scary aspects of Web 3.0– data and privacy and how we can trust companies or governments in a Web 3.0-era. This week, we talk about the good things: The realm of innovation that all this data opens up. From self-driving cars to sustainable mega-cities, in this segment Hoffman and O’Reilly give us their Web 3.0 wish list.
Enjoy! → Read More
We invited Reid Hoffman and Tim O’Reilly — two of the biggest thinkers in the Valley– into the studio to talk about what Hoffman calls “Web 3.0.” He argues the next wave isn’t as simple as MOBILE! As he first discussed at SXSW, it’s about companies running on any platform or in the real world using the last few decades of data being gathered on our virtual and actual selves to build stunningly innovative new products and services.
In this segment, we talk about the obviously frightening implications of that and whether we should fear government or business more. Tomorrow, we’ll focus on the good of the trend, including a segment on the business opportunities in Web 3.0 and one on some way-out-there potential new applications that could change our lives. → Read More
While grandma flips through photo albums on her sleek iPad, government agencies (and most corporations) process mission-critical transactions on cumbersome web-based front ends that function by tricking mainframes into thinking that they are connected to CRT terminals. These systems are written in computer languages like Assembler and COBOL, and cost a fortune to maintain. I’ve written about California’s legacy systems and the billions of dollars that are wasted on maintaining these. Given the short tenure of government officials, lobbying by entrenched government contractors, and slow pace of change in the enterprise-computing world, I’m not optimistic that much will change – even in the next decade. But there is hope on another front: the Open Government Initiative. This provides entrepreneurs with the data and with the APIs they need to solve problems themselves. They don’t need to wait for the government to modernize its legacy systems; they can simply build their own apps.
The federal government’s open data initiative, data.gov, was launched exactly one year ago with 47 datasets of government information, by Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra. This has grown to more than 250,000 datasets. Hundreds of applications have already been built to harness this information. A few states and localities have also followed the lead, the most notable of which is San Francisco City. → Read More
I did interviews with most of the TechCrunch50 experts backstage and there was a common gripe about the companies launching there: Not enough passion, not enough swinging for the fences, not enough trying to change the world. There were too many people building safe businesses, too many companies just trying to make existing things slightly better, and too many people wanting to be the next Mint.com, not the next Google. Nothing against Mint, but Silicon Valley wasn’t built on $170 million exits. → Read More
Conference organizer, publisher and investor Tim O’Reilly doesn’t mince words. In this video he talks candidly about what he hated at TechCrunch50 today, what he loved and what excites him about the Web right now.
O’Reilly is a consummate thought leader in the Valley so the interview is interesting for anyone. But if you’re planning on actually pitching O’Reilly on anything this is required viewing.
Oh, he also explains what he and the Cookie Monster have in common. Video is on the jump. (Sorry for the abrupt edits. Trying to keep these interviews on the short-side.) → Read More
In an ironic twist of fate, a number of people related to O’Reilly Media, as well as others guilty of using Twitter to express thoughts and commentary about and from the Gov 2.0 Summit, have found their accounts suspended this morning due to unspecified ‘strange activity’.
That includes prolific (and real) Twitter users such as Tim O’Reilly himself, but also other accounts related to the publishing and event company, such as O’Reilly Radar’s Brady Forrest (@brady), authors like Sean Power (@seanpower) and generic accounts including @w2e (for the Web 2.0 Expo) and @gov2events.
Updated: most accounts that were wrongfully suspended are being reinstated one by one now. → Read More
Editor’s note: The following guest post is by Tim O’Reilly, the founder and CEO of computer book publisher O’Reilly Media and a conference organizer. O’Reilly coined the term Web 2.0 five years ago. Now he is arguing it is time for Gov 2.0, and has helped organize a summit next week to talk about what that might mean.
Today, many people equate Web 2.0 with social media; three or four years ago, they equated it with AJAX applications and APIs. Many are now starting to think it’s all about cloud computing. In fact, it’s all of these and more. The way I have always defined Web 2.0, it’s been about what it means for the internet, rather than the personal computer, to be the dominant computing platform. What are the rules of business and competitive advantage when the network is the platform?
So too with Government 2.0. A lot of people equate the term with government use of social media, either to solicit public participation or to get out its message in new ways. Some people think it means making government more transparent. Some people think it means adding AJAX to government websites, or replacing those websites with government APIs, or building new cloud platforms for shared government services. And yes, it means all those things.
But as with Web 2.0, the real secret of success in Government 2.0 is thinking about government as a platform. If there’s one thing we learn from the technology industry, it’s that every big winner has been a platform company: someone whose success has enabled others, who’ve built on their work and multiplied its impact. → Read More
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