June 2007 Archives

The front page of the IT section in today’s Australian Financial Review sports as its largest story a review of our Web 2.0 in Australia event, titled “Start-ups weave future around social web”. It starts off:

“It’s a dreary Sydney afternoon in early June, but social media consultant Ross Dawson couldn’t be happier. He’s surrounded by the cream of the Australian internet start-up community, who are buzzing as they discuss how the next-generation worldwide web will be built.

Mr Dawson’s Web 2.0 in Australia conference on June 6 was a landmark event for Australia’s internet community, bringing together a host of entrepreneurs who had previously only been connected online.

A couple of years ago, this event would not have been possible because there wouldn’t have been enough people to take part.

The numbers of Australian internet start-ups are booming at the moment as local entrepreneurs join the global rush to build web applications and hope to make a fortune along the way.

“I’m amazed at how rapidly they’re coming out at the moment,” Mr Dawson said. “In the last six months, it’s been a really rich scene.””

The June issue of BOSS magazine has a very interesting piece titled "Lost in Translation", which examines the role of building a shared corporate language for employees and clients. (The article is currently available online though AFR often takes these offline after a period.) The article quotes me as follows:

"Management consultant Ross Dawson, from Advanced Human Technologies, says there's good reason for specialists to talk this way. "You have to think about the broader context. When people become specialised they need a specialised vocabulary. It's useful to get a verbal shorthand. But it can create barriers to understanding, both within and outside organisations."

One of the perennial debates in linguistics is whether language is the origin of thought or the other way around. This seems like an odd question to a layperson. Surely it's a no-brainer to conclude that without thought there can be no language? But there is evidence that changing the way language is used can alter the way people think and then behave. It's the theory behind neurolinguistic programming, a still-controversial amalgam of linguistic and psychoanalytic techniques designed to improve the subject's ability to function, usually in the workplace.

Some psychotherapists contend that NLP practitioners try to duplicate their function without their qualifications. But at its simplest, NLP is a technique that asks people what they really mean, to encourage them to think and communicate clearly. It represents what Dawson sees as a kind of harmonising of language across different communities.

However there is another approach to reining in linguistic anarchy that Dawson describes as codification. Codification occurs when a company provides a strict definition of commonly used words and phrases. Take the word "incident". Does it just mean something that happened? Or does it go further than that?"

There’s currently a massive discussion going on in the blogosphere about a series of Microsoft ads in which they asked prominent bloggers such as Michael Arrington, Om Malik, Fred Wilson, and Richard MacManus (the links are to their comments on the brouhaha) to say what they thought the term “people-ready” meant. These were compiled in a site sponsored by Microsoft, which does not mention any products or services, but simply promotes the concept of people-ready.

The controversy was sparked by a brief article on rabble-rousing blog site Valleywag, which starts its piece saying:

“The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV news hosts, shouldn't trade on their public trust to endorse products.”

…and goes on to attack the people-ready campaign. I don’t get this. These bloggers are not endorsing products in any conceivable form. They are giving thoughts on a concept. How this could be seen to affect their credibliity is beyond me.

Among other business activities, I am a professional speaker and writer. I’ve written white papers, done webcasts, and given keynote speeches for payment, for among many others Microsoft, SAP, and IBM. At no point in these activities do I ever endorse a product or company. I share my views and expertise, and my clients pay to be associated with these ideas, and to attract an audience who want to get an unbiased perspective on business trends and strategies. The fact that I’m being paid to share my opinions on business and technology issues does not impact my credibility.

The bloggers in this campaign have not done anything that would affect how any reasonable person would perceive their integrity. They have not endorsed anyone. They’ve shared their thoughts on a topic. The fact that some of these bloggers have now shied away or even apologized shows that their sensitivity to potential perceptions is extreme. The degree of propriety expected of bloggers now goes far beyond that expected for mainstream media. That there is transparency and debate on the limits of propriety is good. However it is crazy to say that sharing opinions and ideas is wrong, when these could apply to any company, any product, and any service, and are not linked to any of these.

David Casaleggio, a media and network consultant based in Milan, let me know about an extremely interesting short video he’s created on the future of media. He has created versions in English, as below, and also subtitled in Japanese and Spanish (recognizing the global nature of media markets).

A few highlights in the second half of the clip:
In 2020 Lawrence Lessig becomes the US Secretary of Justice and declares copyright illegal.
Devices that replicate the senses are available, and reality is replicated in Second Life. Everyone has an Agav (Agent Avatar) that finds information, people and places in virtual worlds.
In 2022 Google launches Prometeus, the Agav standard interface.
In 2027 SecondLife becomes Spirit, where people share their experiences and feelings. Memory selling becomes normal trading.
In 2050 virtual life is the biggest market on the planet and Prometeus finances space missions to find new markets.
In conclusion: “Experience is the new reality”.

A nice thought-starter on where we might be heading…

Hmmm.... Not sure whether to take this as a compliment.

Cameron Reilly of The Podcast Network and I caught up last week after we both spoke at the Evolve conference. Cameron wrote on his blog :

"Caught a taxi to the airport with Ross Dawson and we had a great chat about the Singularity. Ross looks like an accountant but he’s really a major geek."

For those who are not geeks, the Singularity is the point at which the acceleration of technology goes beyond human comprehension. Whether and how soon it comes is a fascinating conversation for transhumanists...

This one minute interview of Adrian McDermott, Vice President of Engineering at BEA, was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Adrian discusses BEA's initiatives in applying Web 2.0 in the enterprise. These are also covered at BEA's new en.terpri.se site.

The recent Web 2.0 in Australia event was a fabulous success. However because it was an invitation only event with space for just 100 people, many who wanted to were unable to attend. Fortunately, the fine folk at Viocorp, one of Australia’s leading Internet broadcasting companies, very generously made a video of all key proceedings at Web 2.0 in Australia, including the panels and showcase presentations, so these are available to all!

Click here for video of Web 2.0 in Australia, hosted by Viocorp.

This one minute interview of Ross Dawson, Chairman of Future Exploration Network, was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Ross talks about the seven fundamental characteristics of Web 2.0 described in his recently released Web 2.0 Framework

This one minute interview of Richard MacManus, Editor and Publisher of Read/Write Web, was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Richard talks about his new blogs Alt Search Engines and Last100.com, and the state of Web 2.0 in Australia.

This one minute interview of Mick Liubinskas, Chief Customer Officer of Tangler, was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event, where Tangler was showcased as one of the leading examples of Web 2.0 in Australia. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Mick talks about Tangler and its future.

This one minute interview of Richard Giles of Scouta was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event, where Scouta was showcased as one of the leading examples of Web 2.0 in Australia. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Richard talks about Scouta and the need to cope with a world of unlimited content.

This one minute interview of Phil Morle of Omnidrive was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event, where Omndrive was showcased as one of the leading examples of Web 2.0 in Australia. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Phil talks about Omnidrive and its role in the Web 2.0 space.

This one minute interview of Peter Russell of KPMG was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Peter talks about the benefits and applications of Web 2.0 for corporates.

This one minute interview of Brad Howarth, freelance journalist and Director of Lagrange Communications, was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Brad talks about the state of Web 2.0 in Australia, including in start-ups and corporates.

This one minute interview of Ben Naftzger, Sales Director of Atlassian, was made in conjunction with the Web 2.0 in Australia event, where Atlassian was showcased as one of the leading examples of Web 2.0 in Australia. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Ben talks about what distinguishes Atlassian, including its open architecture and policies.

This one minute interview of Allan Aaron, General Partner of venture capital firm Technology Venture Partners, was made at the time of the Web 2.0 in Australia event. The video was produced by One Minute World, which specializes in one minute video content for streaming and mobile devices.

Allan discusses shifts in the Web 2.0 space in Australia from a venture capital perspective.

Kimberly Palmer of Networx has put together what looks like a fantastic conference on 14 June in Melbourne, titled Evolve. Its highly diverse content is refreshing after the usual run-of-the-mill marketing events. I’ll be doing a keynote titled: We, Evolved: networks of influence:

The power of the social network - word of mouth, buzz, curation – has never been stronger. This fascinating session examines the structure of influence in a world driven increasingly by social, rather than status-based, opinion.How does the structure of these influence networks evolve? Can we, the marketer, influence these networks overtly or only covertly? How can you identify, drive and reward influences, gaining advantage rather than taking advantage?

In my keynote I will start by going through some of the underlying network science, which surprisingly few marketers and online people are familiar with, considering how useful this is. I will then drill down into the critical distinction between the crude “identify the influencers and influence them” approach to word of mouth marketing, and the value of uncovering the structure of influence networks, the better to craft effective influence strategies. I’ll discuss both consumer marketing and B2B marketing, drawing for example on my research into technology purchase influence networks. I’ll then cover the specific dynamics of online influence, including blogs and recommendation systems such as Digg and Techmeme, before looking at some case studies and concluding action steps for the audience. I will post on this blog again soon on some of the detail of what I’ll cover, including my commentary on the latest research coming out on influence networks.

There are countless guides to venture capital for budding entrepreneurs on the web. Marc Andreesen, the founder of the seminal VC success story Netscape and the recently launched Ning (an extremely interesting social networking platform), among many other ventures, has provided his own guide in a three part series:
Part 1: VC basics and what they look for
Part 2: Going deeper, including comparing VC firms
Part 3: Long-term perspectives, including why VCs continue to be successful today

The most interesting by far is Part 3, looking at long-term cyclicality in the industry, and how venture capital has become accepted as an asset class for professional investors. Over the last couple of decades I’ve spent in and around the capital markets, I’ve seen a number of “new” asset classes struggle for acceptance among institutional investors. Portfolio theory shows that if the investment performance of different asset classes are not fully correlated, you can get better returns for a given risk by including additional asset classes. As such, investors actively want to bring in new asset classes into their portfolios, but there are all sorts of hurdles to cross. High-yield debt, emerging markets debt, venture capital, hedge funds, and other investment vehicles have all gone through a process of being examined by trustees and committees, recommendations provided by asset consultants, eventual approval for small investments by innovative investors, and then larger allocations across most institutional investors. In the US, university endowments have substantially outperformed mutual funds and other institutional investors over the last decade or so, partly through being ahead of the pack in taking on new asset classes such as venture capital.

A few initial reflections on the Web 2.0 in Australia event held yesterday… Overall it was a great success, with 100 over invited guests filling the KPMG conference facility, and all requests for invitations having been turned away over the last couple of weeks since we reached capacity. Everything ran smoothly on the day, and some great insights emerged.

For many attendees the highlight was the showcase of five leading Australian Web 2.0 companies (full details here), which amply demonstrated the calibre of local companies and talent, as well as BEA’s demonstration of their new enterprise 2.0 suite. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the Top 60 Web 2.0 applications in Australia we’ve identified (I will be posting shortly about some of the applications I missed in my first go at the list).

We jammed a stack of rich content into the event’s 2½ hours, and while the primary theme of attendee feedback was that they wanted a longer event, I think we did justice to the topic, with some great panel discussions in addition to the showcases. Video coverage of the event done by our event partners Viocorp and One Minute World will be released shortly and will be posted on this blog and elsewhere. In the meantime, a few quick thoughts on what was covered:

Partly as we’ve decided to grow the events part of our business, we’re looking for someone really exceptional who can help to make that happen. In addition to the Future of Media Summit coming up in Sydney and San Francisco, we’re planning a number of events related to Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 for later this year. Clearly the right person for the role will have a very good understanding of current technologies, as well as be familiar with the industry landscape. For the meantime we are experimenting with growing the business just with part-time roles, partly as we find there is great supply/ demand characteristics: lots of excellent people want part-time roles for various reasons, and they don’t find many opportunities.

Please do pass on word on this if there’s anyone you know who may be interested. Details below.

The Web 2.0 in Australia event is way overbooked. We’ve been turning away all requests for invitations for some time, including from senior executives from organizations such as Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, and the Federal Department of Finance, and from a whole host of very cool entrepreneurs who we would have just loved to have along. However our event space is limited to a 100-odd, so unfortunately it’s not possible this time.

We will, however, produce a stack of excellent video content from the event for free access, including the key presentations and panels, produced by the kind folks over at Metrix Digital, and one-minute interviews with most of the speakers and showcase presenters by One Minute World, a very interesting company focusing on one-minute video content for streaming and mobile devices. I’ll let you know on this blog as soon as the Web 2.0 video content is up.

In addition, the fantastic response to the event means that we will definitely be running some open events later this year. Probably a Web 2.0 showcase, an Enterprise 2.0 workshop, and perhaps a bigger event on where the web is going. I will ask here later what people are most interested in.

Anyway… because we’ve had to turn away so many people for the main event, and also to take advantage of Richard MacManus being in the country, we’ll have a Web 2.0 drinks on the evening of 6 June. Anyone’s welcome to turn up – there’ll be a cash bar.

Where: Casa Asturiana, 77 Liverpool Street, Sydney
When: 6 June, from 8pm
Who: Anyone interested in Web 2.0, especially those making it happen.

Pass on word if you want. Hope to see you there!

I am behind on my blogging, so I thought I’d make some very brief comments about a host of extremely interesting announcements that have come out this week.

Google acquires Feedburner.
Feedburner has been prominent in enabling the world of RSS. This acquisition, estimated to be worth $100 million, makes eminent sense for Google in being able to create more value for both publishers and advertisers. Feedburner’s analytics are a key part of that. This is a powerful combination.
Top references/ analysis:
Feedburner CEO comments
Reuters story