Web 2.0 Summit

Event Info

Wed 5 - Fri 7 Nov, 2008 from 12:00am - 12:00am

Palace Hotel

2 New Montgomery Street

San Francisco, CA, 94105, US

Cost: By invitation only: http://en.oreilly.com/web2008/public/sv/q/69

Only the Web 2.0 Summit (formerly named Web 2.0 Conference) brings the intelligence, innovation, and leadership of the Internet industry together in one place at one time. The Summit is known for its interactive format, encouraging audience interaction and participation. Through incisive plenary sessions, cut-through-the-hype onstage conversations, rapid-fire "high order bits" and "show me" presentations and in-depth workshops, visionaries and executives from Internet businesses will present their unique perspective on the Web's future-in-flux. You'll learn what business models are working, what's next on the horizon, and how all of this will affect your own business. We've built in plenty of time for catching up with old friends and making new acquaintances, and for connecting with the leaders and technologists redefining the Web's business opportunities. Web 2.0 Summit is brought to you in partnership with O'Reilly Media, Inc. and TechWeb and moderated by John Battelle, Program Chair, and O'Reilly CEO and founder, Tim O'Reilly.

Attendance at Web 2.0 Summit is limited to maintain an intimate setting and foster dialogue among all participants. Registration is by invitation only.

Web Meets World

In the first four years of the Web 2.0 Summit, we've focused on our industry's challenges and opportunities, highlighting in particular the business models and leaders driving the Internet economy. But as we pondered the theme for this year, one clear signal has emerged: our conversation is no longer just about the Web. Now is the time to ask how the Web—its technologies, its values, and its culture—might be tapped to address the world's most pressing limits. Or put another way—and in the true spirit of the Internet entrepreneur—its most pressing opportunities.

While it seems as if many of our most complex systems are reaching their limits, it strikes us that the Web might teach us new ways to address these limits. From harnessing collective intelligence to a bias toward open systems, the Web's greatest inventions are, at their core, social movements. To that end, we're expanding our program this year to include leaders in the fields of healthcare, genetics, finance, global business, and yes, even politics.

Increasingly, the leaders of the Internet economy are turning their attention to the world outside our industry. And conversely, the best minds of our generation are turning to the web for solutions. At the fifth annual Web 2.0 Summit, we'll endeavor to bring these groups together.

The "Who's Who" of the Internet

Now in its fifth year, Web 2.0 Summit has become the gathering place for business leaders of the new Web—it reflects and embodies the community—bringing together the most influential to discuss and debate the most important issues and strategies driving the Internet economy and what we might expect in the coming year.

Over 70 thought leaders and entrepreneurs slated to present in an interactive format stressing audience participation
More than a dozen extraordinary thinkers and business leaders will present "High Order Bits" - ten minute stand-and-deliver presentations designed to provoke, delight, and amaze the audience.
Top executives from platform businesses will address the future of the Web in plenary sessions
We'll focus on innovative new web technologies in our expert led-workshops
A variety of unique networking events including receptions, dinners and evening parties

The Web 2.0 Summit connects the leaders and technologists opening the Web's business opportunities. Conference attendance is limited to maintain an intimate setting and foster dialogue among all participants.

Defining just what Web 2.0 means still engenders much disagreement. Tim O'Reilly attempts to clarify just what we meant by Web 2.0, digging into what it means to view the Web as a platform and which applications fall squarely under its purview, and which do not. Read "What is Web 2.0" by Tim O'Reilly.

The commercial web is now a teenager—it's been fifteen short years since Marc Andreessen released the Mosaic browser. To put this in perspective, television as a commercial medium reached its fifteenth birthday in 1956—the year Elvis Presley made his first appearance on national TV. National news broadcasts were still in their infancy, "As The World Turns" debuted as America's first half-hour soap opera, and "The Price Is Right" began its dominance of the game show genre. Commercial grade videotape recorders emerged, portable black and white television sets were introduced, and the first local color broadcast aired in Chicago.

Fifteen years after television's birth, the contours of the new medium were just emerging. The idea that this revolutionary new phenomenon—one busily reshaping the very fabric of society—might one day become just another application on a vast web of computers, well that idea wasn't exactly in vogue.

As we convene the fifth annual Web 2.0 Summit, our world is fraught with problems that engineers might charitably classify as NP hard—from roiling financial markets to global warming, failing healthcare systems to intractable religious wars. In short, it seems as if many of our most complex systems are reaching their limits.

It strikes us that the Web might teach us new ways to address these limits. From harnessing collective intelligence to a bias toward open systems, the Web's greatest inventions are, at their core, social movements. To that end, we're expanding our program this year to include leaders in the fields of healthcare, genetics, finance, global business, and yes, even politics.

Increasingly, the leaders of the Internet economy are turning their attention to the world outside our industry. And conversely, the best minds of our generation are turning to the Web for solutions. At the fifth annual Web 2.0 Summit, we'll endeavor to bring these groups together.