Topic: The Internet and the World Wide Web

China is undergoing a very Web 1.0 phase, but with Web 2.0 potential. Mary has the goods on who, what, where, when, and why. From the Web 2.0 Conference. [IT Conversations audio from the Web 2.0 Conference]

The Web started on the PC, but the mobile web is poised to eclipse the PC as the dominant driver of innovation in the Web 2.0 era. At the Web 2.0 conference, mobile expert Rael Dornfest discusses the state of the mobile web with innovators Russell Beattie, Jory Bell, Juha Christensen and Trip Hawkins. (IT Conversations audio from the Web 2.0 conference)

Want to grok the blogosphere? Dave Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati has the inside look at this explosive new medium. (IT Conversations audio from the Web 2.0 Conference)

So, Is This a Bubble Yet? No greater shroud hangs over Web 2.0 then the fear that we'll repeat the financial mistakes of the past. With dozens of tech IPOs either recently completed or in the works, how are we doing? Leading analysts Lanny Baker and Safa Rashtchy join top financier Bill Janeway and London-based Danny Rimer to address the state of the internet's finances. (IT Conversations audio from the Web 2.0 Conference)

What can we learn from the adult industry? Andrew Conru, CEO of Friend Finder, answers this question in his High-Order Bit presentation at the Web 2.0 Conference. (IT Conversations audio)

This week it's all about blogging and RSS with The Gang's special guests, Rafat Ali and Stephen O'Grady. Does Bloglines represent the tipping point for blogs? What about blogs in the corporate world? Is there a role for blogs in business processes? And do blogs make companies more transparent? Blogs are simple and valuable, so why aren't they part of IBM or Micorosoft's plans for their collaborative-software products? (The Gillmor Gang on IT Conversations.)

After Mark Cuban made a billion or so selling his company to Yahoo! during the height of the Web 1.0 craze, he decided to buy a basketball team. Fortunately, he bought the Mavericks, a team whose name suits his style: brash, out there, and unconventional. Now he's back in the media business with HDNet. Cuban is a stitch onstage, a straight-talking no-punches-pulled Wildman whose irreverent one liners will have you snorting wine out your nose. This conversation with Mark Cuban is moderated by John Heilemann, a special correspondent for Wired and a former staff writer for The New Yorker and The Economist. (IT Conversations audio from the Web 2.0 Conference)

Gian Fulgoni, chairman and co-founder of comScore Networks, presents "Research Examining the Impact of Broadband and Internet Tenure on Consumer Behavior." Ever wondered what the research companies know that you don't? Gian tells you. (IT Conversations audio from the Web 2.0 Conference)

John Doerr is one of the most prolific venture capitalists in the world, and one whose investments have been at the heart of the emerging Internet industry. His most recent -- and most spectacular -- success is Google, which Doerr backed in 1999 despite significant skepticism among other VCs. Asked at the time why he would back a search company with no proven business model, Doerr responded: "With this kind of traffic, we'll figure it out." Seems they did. In conversation with journalist and author John Heilemann, who has been jousting onstage with Doerr for nearly a decade now. A not to be missed discussion. (IT Conversations audio from the Web 2.0 Conference)

(The Gillmor Gang on IT Conversations) Adam Bosworth, now Google's VP of Engineering, joins The Gang this week to discuss his vision for the future of search architecture. "How do you handle data that's much less known up front and where the query is by relevance?" Adam asks. Most of today's databases are built on the relational model, but most of today's queries are not. Instead they're looking for keyword precision, location and semantic context -- not a textual or numeric match. The relational model is designed for use when both the data and the queries can be anticipated, but in today's world, neither are typically known in advance.

Adam suggests that the same divide-and-conquer architectures used to make web servers more scalable could be used in search. He envisions data routers that will know which back-end servers have which knowledge and will query servers asynchronously according to the liklihood of getting the best results.

The discussion then turns to the topic of attention and the technology and politics of knowing who's reading what on the Internet. XML-based RSS and Atom have created both the challenge and the opportunity.