Topic: The Internet and the World Wide Web
People like free, especially when it comes to apps. Ben Lorica, a Senior Analyst at O'Reilly Media, Inc., summarizes the popularity and economic trends of apps for both iPhones and iPads. He also presents statistics on how long apps stay popular, what makes them popular, and why price might not be a major factor after all.
The global television system is a half-trillion dollar business, leading Peter Chernin to say the cable business is "one of the great business models of all time." It is not surprising then that traditional television companies are nervous about new technologies, such as Netflix and Google TV, looking to secure content rights. Television companies must sharpen their game to maintain their 50 to 90 percent profit margins in the forthcoming digital age.
The concept of scalability has been around as long as the need to deal with ever-expanding systems has. Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher, authors of the book Scalability Rules: 50 Principles for Scaling Web Sites, discuss the problems with how technology experts have to deal with expansion as more organizations increase their web presence. Having written an earlier book (The Art of Scalability), they are uniquely qualified to give practical advice to IT professionals.
Telecom companies need to move from being merely infrastructure companies to having add-on services on top of their infrastructure to survive. Martin Geddes, Head of Strategy at BT, looks at the container industry's history for insights into where the future for telecommunications will be. The money in the container industry was not in the infrastructure but in the service of moving objects from A to B, efficiently and profitably.
Dr. Moira Gunn hears about life as Google employee from author and former Director of Consumer Marketing and Brand Management, Doug Edwards, as outlined in his new book, I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59.
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams describes the revenue model for their newly launched Promoted suite of products. Hear Williams' views about the Twitter fire hose as well as integration and data sharing with Facebook. Addressed also are commercial viability and safety for third party developers who invest in developing products with the Twitter API. Williams also answers interviewer John Battelle's questions about finance, stock, and other compelling issues concerning the Twitter social media website. Includes a Q&A with the audience.
Dr. Moria Gunn talks with neurobiologist, Dean Buonomano, about brains and how they work from the pages of his new book, Brain Bugs.
Everyone on the web is participating in a great "data exhaust." Therefore, good internet companies do not ambush their users, Reid Hoffman says. Known as the most connected person in Silicon Valley, and a newly-made billionaire since the May IPO of LinkedIn, Hoffman predicts what Web 3.0 will be like.
Web forms suck, but they can be delightful, if designers will adopt a new mindset and use the latest tools. Luke Wroblewski has studied rich interactions in Javascript to find the best improvements over plain old web forms. He suggests novel ways to use data collected where people already live, in email, IM, and web services, so no forms are needed. And he delights in new kinds of interaction possible on mobile devices, with their sensors, soft keyboards, and advanced displays. Today, web forms can be wonderful.
Dr. Moira Gunn learns about Google search engine feature that allows you to speak your search terms, along with other speech technology from the Manager of Speech Technology at Google, Mike Cohen.
