It’s a face-off between new and traditional media at the Web 2.0 Summit.
Representing new media, in a discussion over the future of journalism, are Federated Media’s John Battelle; Marissa Mayer, who leads Google’s search services and consumer products like Chrome; and Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal’s top editor, Robert Thomson, stand in for the old guard.
“Controlling the stream” is not just one of the major life-challenges facing elderly gentlemen; it is the center of industrial competition on the realtime social network that we once termed “Web 2.0.”
In his keynote speech at last week’s Web 2.0 Expo, Vic Gundotra, Google’s vice president of engineering, reaffirmed that the future of tech is all about mobile. He demonstrated a crowd-pleasing prototype for Gmail written as a Web application for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform, which would allow users to access cached messages without an Internet connection.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Movie buffs are used to visiting RottenTomatoes.com for guidance on whether it will be a “Watchmen” or “Madea Goes to Jail” weekend. Will they tune in as the Web site tries its hand at television?
Tonight, Current, the Al Gore-founded cable station, will begin airing “The Rotten Tomatoes Show.” The half-hour episodes feature co-hosts Brett Ehrlich and Ellen Fox, who review film news and, in Web 2.0 style, draw from users for short (really short–DVD releases are reviewed in haiku form) reviews.
A discussion that began on a journalist’s personal blog has sparked a wider debate on ethics in the age of social media as the lines between journalists’ professional work and their personal activities blur.
by Paul Boutin, Blogger, Gadgetwise, New York Times
Barack Obama’s online presence drove his campaign’s early fund raising and his primary victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton. His campaign’s use of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube proved that he was part of the Web 2.0 generation. So what happened? President Obama hasn’t tweeted once since being sworn into office.
by Mark Drapeau, Contributing Writer, ReadWriteWeb
Everyone knows how well Barack Obama’s presidential campaign made use of new media to raise money and market the candidate. We also know how big a role social technology played during inauguration week, from handheld flip HD footage appearing on network TV to people reporting on Twitter about what they liked and disliked. But one striking trend has largely flown under the national radar: the rise of the goverati.
The year is nearly over, and anyone who has walked through the snow has had a moment to reflect on whether he has made the world a better place.
After three months of blood-letting-money-scrabbling-self-flagellation, few of us have the heart to ask that question aloud.
by Charlie O'Donnell, Co-Founder and CEO, Path101.com, Blogger, This is Going to be BIG
Saturday, Loïc Le Meur blogged that “We’re not equal on Twitter, as we’re not equal on blogs and on the Web.” He was talking about the need for Twitter to start filtering searches by authority–and by authority he means the number of people following them.
You’re sitting at the back of the room in a large auditorium. There is a guy up front, and he is having a conversation with the people in the front few rows. You can’t hear them quite so well, although it seems like you can tune into them if you listen carefully.
There’s something about the crisp autumn air that brings out the philosopher in Mark Zuckerberg. At this week’s Web 2.0 Summit, the Facebook founder mused, according to Saul Hansell of the New York Times, “I would expect that next year, people will share twice as much information as they share this year, and [the] next year, they will be sharing twice as much as they did the year before.”
by Therese Poletti, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch, Tech Tales
On Wednesday, about 1,000 of the tech industry’s elite will begin schmoozing at a three-day conference here on Web 2.0 technologies, in what is now a vastly different business climate than a year ago.
At the onset of the Wall Street meltdown, many in Silicon Valley seemed to have their heads in the sand. But in recent weeks, with lightening speed, venture capitalists are suddenly preaching to their portfolio companies to cut costs, generate revenues and become profitable, fast, or die.
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