Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin
I can’t really give a full review as I just attended the barcamp and some keynotes. But this conference had quite a different vibe compared to ones I’ve been so far. Makes me want to try a greater
variety of events in the future. What I found a bit annoying though was the suite wearing crowd at the web 2.0 expo. Not sure that’s a
German phenomena or related to the conference itself. Compared to many keynotes I’ve seen on other conferences the web 2.0 ones were actually quite good. Not the usual “we are
a sponsor” keynotes. The one with Tim O’Reilly interviewing Neil Holloway from Microsoft was interesting and quite funny. Kathy Sierra on “Creating Passionate
Users” was also really good. But I also enjoyed the news from Blaise Aguera y Arcas from Photosynth. Although I have to admit his presentation at TED was much more exciting.
In general the conference felt a bit too buzz word compliant and the excitement about open social always had a little “gold rush” feeling attached to it. I am sure open social will contribute to a consolidation of the social networks. And that’s a good thing! Because frankly speaking I am getting tired of signing up for the next completely disconnected social network. The vision of the one open social graph is compelling and the possibilities are exciting.
Most (all?) conference slides can be found on slideshare. My pictures are on flickr.