Its been a great fascinating conference. The speakers have been great, the panelists qualified and insightful. But for me, the real fun has been in chatting with the other attendee's.Scoble seems to hear "podcasting" being talked about everywhere. Steve Gillmor is talking about podcasting, but I'm not hearing about it from the people that ponied up the bucks to attend. Apart from the official agenda topics, I haven't heard a clear concise buzz on anything. It seems to me that there are dozens of very specific personal quests to figure out various bits of technology surrounding weblogs, the internet in general and various bits of other puzzling technology, but there are no real themes emerging based on the people that I've talked to.
I've uploaded a few pics from the various sessions and the quick sightseeing jaunt I made the other day...enjoy!
The sessions have helped me clarify some of my thinking regarding the actual state of social software, what problems remain unsolved and where the tough work still remains. I'll probably write a bit more abou this at some point, but it seems that usability is the next big issue that needs to be tackled and furthermore, we're not actually talking about Web 2.0.
The current panel is talking about the future of online advertising....I should start paying attention.
I think audioblogging or podcasting or whatever you want to call it will be a big deal. Think of the difference it made when we were able to distribute the DNSO Names Council calls via downloadable mp3s. It's a cheap and easy way of distributing information.
Right now, with a few exceptions, I'm not impressed with the content that is circulating. Check out Christopher Lydon's blog if you want to see what is possible though. (Lydon is a professional broadcaster, so he has the tools and the skills to do it well.) Aside from that, I haven't really heard much that made me want to listen consistently. It will happen though...sooner rather than later.