O'Reilly observes, "We don't always win." and "Let's fight with things that matter."
He announces that he's an Obama supporter, quotes William Simon, who said, "Bad politicians are elected by good people who don't vote."
Wraps up, someone comes out and announces that there will be a Chrome developer session later in the day. CHrome is google's new browser, built to compete with Internet explorer and firefox.
Clay Shirky followed Tim O'Reilly. I recently read Shirky's book, Here Comes Everybody, after hearing and meeting him at the Personal Democracy Forum earlier this summer-- brilliant guy and he did not disappoint. But this is long enough already. Check out the link to his site and definitely read his book. It's a great read.
I went from the keynotes to the exhibit hall. I love exhibit hall and can spend hours there. And so it was. .
Most of the vendors were selling add-on social networking systems that add commenting, friends, etc.-- the most popular social networking components-- to existing corporate websites. Big companies are trying to figure out how to tap the power of web 2.0 and there were probably at least two dozen companies there to help them do it, starting at about $2000 to $2500 a month.
Microsoft's "Surface" was the hottest item at the show, drawing the biggest crowds. It functions like the big screens the political experts use to show data and maps on CNN and MSNBC.
There were a few non-profits there I liked:
donorschoose.org, knowmore.org and socialactions.com
Overall, it was an excellent experience. I'll try to make it to two or three days of the conference next year.
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