Web 2.0 Expo - A First Take

Since the wireless LAN at the Expo wasn't working until the afternoon, all I've got is my Twitter stream taken on my Blackberry for the early sessions. Rather than struggle blogging that on my laptop, I'll wait until I get home and can use my much more comfortable desktop PC to transfer the info. Until then, here are a few quick takes.

Blogworld is better. Much, much better. The speakers here are talking about Web 2.0 and as such, they are mostly talking about the tools and how they are changing the world. At Blogworld the speakers are talking about what they do - economics, politics, fighting in Iraq, sports - and the narratives are much more compelling. All of these Interweb Tubes things are tools. It's OK to hear about how you dug a foundation, but it's the finished museum of modern art you constructed that's really cool.

The theme here is cloud computing. Your network appliances are now commoditized and the really interesting things are happening in the cloud (read: Internet). Facebook is Facebook whether you get there from a clunky XP machine or a sleek, new iPhone. The integration of cloud applications is where innovation lives.

With the exception of the Microsoft Touch Table. That thing is just unreal. Microsoft is here with a huge booth and a touch table. I'll try and get video of a demo today. I want one.

For me, the highlight of the day was seeing a tweet from our Maximum Leader up on the screen during the Q&A session of the Open Enterprise 2.0 talk.

A little tuxedo cat makes an important point.
Unlike Blogworld where Twitter was used extensively for audience feedback and participation, Web 2.0 Expo has really been hit or miss with it. Mostly miss. It was used in only one of the sessions I went to. The rest all used microphones in the audience for Q&A.

More updates later.