I finally got around to putting up the talks from the IT@Cork Web 2.0 Conference!
Shel Israel led off the talks at the IT@Cork Web 2.0 conference with a great introduction to blogs and social media - drawing very much on his experience co-authoring a book on business blogging called Naked Conversations called Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble. Shel’s talk is here.
Salim Ismail was next up. Salim was a powerhouse of knowledge and ideas. His talk concentrated on uses for Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise and if you ever want to see a room full of jaws drop simultaneously, go to hear Salim give a talk. He is an extremely accomplished communicator, deftly making the most complex of ideas readily accessible. Salim’s talk is here.
Third up was Fergus Burns who spoke knowledgeably on the topic close to everyone’s heart - starting a Web 2.0 business in Ireland! Fergus’ talk is here.
Walter Higgins was the fourth speaker up. Walter has a Web 2.0 application called pxn8. Pxn8 is an online photo editing application. Walter showed how pxn8 has been developed using free development environments. Walter’s talk is here.
Finally Rob Burke from Microsoft Ireland gave us a demo we are not likely to forget for a long time - he live developed a web 2.0 app using Atlas on a laptop running Office 12 beta and Vista beta! And it didn’t crash once. The demo Gods were really smiling on him that day! Rob’s demo is here and is followed by the question and answer session between the panel and the audience.
Om Malik announced today he is leaving his job at Business 2.0 to setup a new business.
Robert Scoble let slip that he is leaving Microsoft to join a startup, at a bloggers dinner the other night.
Tara Hunt announced last week that she’s leaving Riya to go out on her own.
Ben Metcalf has left the BBC to start something new.
Chris Messina posted a couple of months back that he was leaving Flock to go out on his own.
I’m sure there are others I have left out.
Of course no trend would be complete without its exception - Niall Kennedy announced he was leaving startup Technorati back in February and subsequently joined Microsoft!
It seems that all over good people are on the move, primarily from (reasonably) secure jobs into the great unknown that is startupsville! Is there something in the air?
Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s most prominent blogger is leaving Microsoft to join John Furrier’s PodTech.net.
Robert himself has said that
I love Microsoft and Microsoft did not lose me — at least as a supporter and friend. I am not throwing away my Tablet PC or my Xbox or my other Microsoft stuff
So his departure appears not to have been acrimonious.
That he has decided to join PodTech.net should come as no big surprise. John Furrier, CEO of PodTech.net, has been growing the network at a phenomenal rate (including landing $5m of investor funding a couple of months back).
For Robert this will be a natural extension of the work he was doing already on Channel9 - video blogging. The difference this time is that instead of just video blogging what Microsoft’s teams are developing, he will now be video blogging whenever he comes across something interesting in Silicon Valley.
This is a huge loss for Microsoft but hopefully they have learned a lot from having Robert on board and they will continue to change for the better (they have a long way to go yet before they win back many people’s trust).
So congratulations Robert to you and Maryam. This is a big move for you both, and I wish you nothing but the best. You deserve no less.
Edited to correct the spelling of Silicon - thanks Eoghan for pointing that out
I tried to join in on Waxxi’s interactive podcast of a discussion with Robert Scoble and Shel Israel today.
I signed up to join in the podcast very early on (long before Mike Arrington blogged about Waxxi). I received my email with instructions on the number to dial and I dialled the number at the appointed time.
I had my question ready and, as per instructed on the phone, I pressed the correct combination of keys to let the moderator know I had a question.
I waited to be called in with my question. And I waited. And I waited. Remember I was dialling international from Ireland.
I waited one hour and fifty minutes to see if I would be called in to ask my question (what can I say, I’m a bit slow on the uptake).
I heard other questions being asked from people who emailed in their questions or IM’d them in. I didn’t know who I could IM my question to (there was no mention of IM in the email instructions), so hearing that others were getting in ahead of me didn’t do much for my mood.
The podcast ended and I didn’t get to ask my question.
I realise that many people had signed up for this podcast but if this format is to be interactive, more interaction needs to happen between the guests on the show (Robert and Shel) and the people who have rung in. Reading out questions emailed or IM’d in is no more interactive than the podcasts I do at PodLeaders.com.
I write posts here with boring regularity on Microsoft’s latest releases. They all follow a similar pattern - “I have just heard that Microsoft have just released [insert product name here] unfortunately it doesn’t work in Firefox/Mac”.
Now, however, I have acquired an unlikely ally in Robert Scoble - Microsoft’s chief blogger! Robert said in a post yesterday
if you want the most passionate people in society to use your stuff, you must support Firefox…. I won’t link (or say anything nice) to any Windows Live service that doesn’t support Firefox.
If the Microsoft development teams take note and start to release products with Firefox support, this will mean far better products, reviews and PR for Microsoft.
What will I have to complain about though!
UPDATE:
I see Damien and Dennis Howlett have responded to Robert’s post as well.
Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s high profile blogger, went on a blog holiday for the past week and it obviously gave him time to do some serious thinking.
He has posted a marathon post which posits five ways to improve Microsoft’s image both internally and externally.
What are his five suggestions?
-
A guaranteed Terabyte of Internet-based storage space for EVERYTHING and for EVERYONE running Windows in the world.
- buy every [Microsoft] employee a top-of-the-line Dell machine with dual monitors running Windows Vista. And do it now.
- Change employee behavior through public compensation change logs.
- Get rid of corporate speed bumps.
- Force marketers to explain their decisions — in public on their blogs.
It is a fascinating post and certainly one which will generate a lot of discussion within Microsoft - any one of those changes would certainly change perceptions of Microsoft for the better.
Here’s hoping he doesn’t fall foul of the ‘corporate speed bumps’ he referred to when trying to move this agenda forward.
UPDATE:
In an IM chat with me Damien Mulley pointed out that MS shouldn’t be putting a Dell system on everyone’s desk - I thought it was because of the widely reported Dell support issues but Damien reckoned they should buy Macs for all their staff so they could “know their enemy”!
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