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it@cork Web 2.0 Conference wrap-up

Monday, June 12th, 2006

“Welcome to the O’Reilly… I mean it@cork Web 2.0 Conference” is how Tom Raftery began the it@cork Web 2.0 Conference this past Thursday. After all the buzz about O’Reilly vs. it@cork this was thankfully one of only few mentions during the conference.

The conference was pitched at a high-level with more of a business and marketing bent than technical development. Some good points were made and I met some of the people behind Irish Web 2.0 (including Bernie of IrishEyes.) Also had a talk with Salim Ismail (formerly of PubSub), Walter Higgins (Sxoop) and the ever friendly Robert Burke (Microsoft.) I also got to meet a very good friend from the U.K for the first time. Thanks for the drinks Derek. On that note I have to recommend Preachers pub in Cork city. Great music, very friendly barstaff and the craic. However I wouldn’t recommend the Jägermeister and Apple Sourz shot combination. Hoo boy.

Argolon has done an excellent job reviewing the conference with posts for each talk. it@cork have also put up the files from each presentation.

Some points that interested me:

Shel Israel quoted Technorati’s blog count figure (40mil) and Salim quickly countered that PubSub has counted closer to 100mil. One must also not forget the huge numbers blogging in Korea and China.
Shel mentioned that Wells Fargo and C|Net had both invited him to give internal talks on blogging. This was to do with blogging behind the firewall.
Shel pointed out that blogging is allowing customers to see that they can trust and like the “lower echelons” of companies even if they aren’t charmed by the upper echelons. e.g. Robert Scoble and others bringing a human face to the “Evil Empire” aka Microsoft.
eBay auctions last on average 7 days

which is too fast for Google to index. New breed of search engines required according to Salim.
The “hidden web” (or dark data/net) is massive (400 times bigger than the public web) and is the next step for the web (Salim). Unlock databases, expose them to the web.
From a show of hands in the room nearly everyone was using a feed reader.
Salim thinks we are into Internet 3.0 and it revolves around events (watching as opposed to searching.) Apparently the PubSub engine (which is not database driven) can handle millions of events a second.
Every company has an email server now. The next common server product will be the “event server” according to Salim.
Nooked.com are using Google Analytics for their stats according to Fergus Burns.
Walter Higgins is using Perl for his PXN8 product. He reckons that language/technology choice is much less of a factor these days.

All in all a good conference and I look forward to more progress from the Web 2.0 community in Ireland.

Posted in Conference, Cork, Development, Event, IT@Cork, Ireland, Web 2.0 | Comments

Off to Cork and Kerry

Thursday, June 8th, 2006

I am off to the it@cork Web 2.0 Conference today and then onto the Ring of Kerry for a three day weekend starting tomorrow. I should be able to post something about the conference this evening but will be offline from then on.

Have a great weekend all and enjoy the great Irish weather we are having.

Posted in Conference, Cork, Event, Holiday, IT@Cork, Ireland, Kerry, Ring of Kerry, Travel, Web 2.0 | Comments

it@cork Web 2.0 Conference post geek dinner

Friday, June 2nd, 2006

Are any of the lads attending the it@cork Web 2.0 Conference planning on having drinks or dinner afterwards? I have a friend coming in from the U.K. for the conference and night plus a few chaps from here in The TSSG. It would be good to get together for a bite after.

Posted in Conference, Event, IT@Cork, Web 2.0, geek dinner | Comments

Tim Responds

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

Tim O’Reilly arrives back from his well deserved holiday and responds to the Tom Raferty/IT@Cork Web 2.0 dispute:

Now, I want to address the deeper issue that’s been raised, about whether it’s appropriate for anyone to hold a trademark on the term Web 2.0, and to give some backstory on how this happened

Tim goes on to say that he feels it is appropriate for CMP and O’Reilly to enforce their trademark. I fully understand it is a business issue but Web 2.0 has come to mean something important to a good number of people. This isn’t Coca Cola or LinuxWorld which are specific and contrived. I was unaware that O’Reilly coined Web 2.0 until quite recently. I had assumed it was a phrase that grew from the blogosphere just like the term blog had, with no distinct owner. It suits the nature of the phrase too.

In my opinion they would be wiser to let it go and continue to reap the good will rather than reap a few extra dollars from their Web 2.0 conference. To be clear; once they get the trademark they have every right to defend it. If they think that is the right course of action then they should. I simply think it is a course that is more trouble than it is worth (as we have already seen.)

Tim points out that Microsoft with Mix 06, Google with Zeitgeist and the Ajax Experience all step around the Web 2.0 trademark problem while retaining the Web 2.0 feel. I disagree. Ajax is a small part of Web 2.0 and I wouldn’t go to the Ajax Experience expecting to learn about open data formats, social software and other Web 2.0 themes. Google Zeitgeist covers far more than Web 2.0 and Mix 06 (which I went to) had only a minimal Web 2.0 theme.

“Web 2.0″ covers what many of us think it to be. It is appropriate to use in a conference title with some consideration. Is CMP going to send cease and desist letters to Web 2.0 Unconference? Or Web 2.0 Barcamp? How about Mixing Web 2.0? The IT@Cork lads should avoid Web 2.0 Conference in their title next year but not drop Web 2.0 from the title totally. Web 2.0 @ Cork Conference?

Posted in CMP, Conference, Dispute, Event, IT@Cork, Legal, O\'Reilly, Tim O\'Reilly, Trademark, Web 2.0 | Comments

O’Reilly cork it up

Friday, May 26th, 2006

Get the t-shirt.

The lads over at CMP who are affiliated with O’Reilly have stirred up a hornet’s nest. They are claiming ownership over the use of Web 2.0 in the title of conferences and events. So nobody but O’Reilly and CMP will be able to put Web 2.0 in their conference title. This issue came to the fore when CMP issued the IT@Cork lads a cease and desist letter for their use of Web 2.0 in their IT@Cork Web 2.0 Conference. A number of bloggers have responded and O’Reilly have made their thoughts known.

This is relevant to me on three fronts. One, I am working on a Web 2.0 project. Two, IT@Cork is just down the road from us here in Waterford and we had been planning on going to the conference for a good few weeks now. Three, I danced with Tim in Las Vegas. He is on holiday and I’d be surprised if he has anything to do with this controversy.

We are still going to that conference. So the lads and I here at FeedHenry have put together two t-shirts with the above slogan on it. It is a good opportunity for us and also I think a suitable statement for the Web 2.0 community (obviously we don’t speak for everyone nor do we claim to. We also aren’t putting any markup on the t-shirts, just the CafePress base-price.) I’ll see if we can bring a bunch to the conference and hand them out.

On the whole issue; I am surprised O’Reilly are involved. They have always seemed switched onto the developer community and would have known that any attempt to cash in on Web 2.0 would backfire. It seems more like what some zealous lawyer in CMP has done. O’Reilly’s statement probably does not reflect the internal conversation going on but they can’t be seen to go against what CMP have done. All in all a right royal mess and a big boon for IT@Cork.

Posted in Conference, FeedHenry, IT@Cork, Web 2.0 | Comments

IT@Cork Web 2.0 Conference

Thursday, May 25th, 2006

IT@Cork in Cork, Ireland are holding a half-day conference on Web 2.0 this coming 8th of June.

It may only be a half-day but the speaker lineup is well worth attending for. Shel Israel is the same chap who co-authored Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble. Salim Ismail is a founder of Pub Sub and should have some very interesting things to say. Rob Burke I know as a local Irish fella and he will have some good insight into Microsoft’s Atlas.

Myself and one other from The TSSG will be attending. Drop me a line if you are attending and we can meet up.

Posted in Conference, Cork, Event, IT@Cork, Rob Burke, Salim Ismail, Shel Israel, Web 2.0 | Comments