Month: April 2007

Last Friday I attended to the Next Web, (although i was very luck to been able to speak with some people on the night before) Because a lot of websites already did great coverages of the day, ill stick to the things i learned.

So what is the next web?

The next web is wireless (not mobile)
Although a lot of people and businesses are really betting on the mobile platform, I think a mobile phone is just some kind of small laptop computer, and that is only a matter of time before we will use it that way (or it’s already been used if you count all the blackberries at the next web). Off course there are different demands when you are wireless, location based services will really grow the upcoming years. But things like sms, mms, and paying extra for calling for long distances will (hopefully) soon be gone.

The Next Web isn’t a web
The web still refers to something static as the spider web. There is probably a need for a new metaphor. Something that is everywhere, always chancing, and always on. It’s a life and it’s about us and the world around us. (Thanks to Tapan Bath’s slide.)

The Next Web is about being connected.
Deborah Schultz already mentioned it, she has about 3000 connections, not all friends, not all a people on one platform like myspace or linked in, but just connections. I think although in lesser extent for me it’s the same. I have many connections, friends from the early days, classmates, ex-colleagues, people i’ve met, people I’ve never met etcetera. The more important a connection is, the more places I use to connect with them. We are probably becoming like star treks the Borg, but without a leader.

The Next Web is de-central
Although the web is in it being de-central, there will be more nodes and the size these nodes will be (relatively) smaller. It is really about the connection, the days of the portals are gone. It’s a headless organisation (like the starfish). The fact that the web is the biggest human invention that has never been out of order since it was build is a big proof of concept. Of course there will be small central places, smaller and bigger spiders will arise, but it wont be big companies any more, it will be people. Who those spiders are? They are the people you first visit and connect when a new social network arises.

The Next Web is about love
This Kevin Kelly quote from last years Next Web is still true I think, thanks to the transparency of the current web (and world) those who are only in it for the money will be discovered very quick and die a silent dead. Those who are however passionate about their work and their life, and are willing to share as much as possible will be the new big spiders of the future.

The Next Web is a social prison
Thanks to it’s structure the web will work as a modern version of the panopticon. With the difference that there is now a two way structure. Everyone will be able to see everyone else, but no-one will be sure if they are being watched. Misbehaviour will be punished, and only a honest reaction will save your ass.

The Next Web will be transparent
As mentioned above, thanks to to speed of information, the multi-connections and the possibility to read and write everywhere. it’s impossible to keep secrets on the web. If you suck, everyone will know it, if you rock everyone will know it too.

As a whole I liked the 2007 edition of the Next Web, I still think it’s one of the best Dutch events we have (together with Picnic) it gave me the opportunity to meet many old friends, to connect with new people and to learn and discuss about the current state of the web. And even been shocked that people knew who I was without ever meeting them before. A big Yay Hooray to Boris, Patrick and Arjen for making this thing happen.

For the next Next Web I would love to see some good science fiction writer or movie maker. Bruce Sterling or William Gibson would be high on my list of recommendations.

Check out some other reviews on BlueAce, MarketingFacts, Mashable, Upstream, Frankwatching, Marketing-podcast and DutchCowboys as well as the photos on Flickr, the videos on YouTube and of course the posts on the web itself.

In the morning session of the Next Web there where two more interesting presentations from the venture capitalists Jeff Clavier and Saul Klein. Their presentation gained a lot of sceptical criticism, nevertheless they got me thinking. So first a summary of their talks, and than I’ll look a bit deeper in the discussion they created.

Saul Klein is missing the right mindset
Saul Klein asks the audience “Why is an area, hardly half the size of the Netherlands, the most successful tech-innovation area in the world”. What Silicon Valley has is a tight connection between VC’s, start-ups and universities, and the ecosystem to commercialize what’s next on on the web.

Europe does have the right ingredients for the formula. It’s level of education is higher than in the States. There is a lot of old and new money, and people are working on technology everywhere. The thing missing according to Saul is the right mindset to make it work. As someone from the audience said “Europeans are educated to be employers instead of entrepreneurs” And from personal experience, i can’t do anything but agree with him.

Leafar wrote an excellent post about Saul’s presentation

Jeff Claviers shares many of the thoughts of his colleague, but first gives us a broader insight on what he thinks is going on in the current world. A vision of people “The previous web was about math, the next one is about people” And although I think he is right about the people, I do have some doubts that the previous one was about math. Yes Google has huge render machines, but what they do is looking for patterns into what humans do. I think the math won’t disappear in the next web, it will probably go bellow the surface where it always was.

Another point he made in which I think he is more right is that thanks to broadband the difference between the representation of the self online and in the real world is shrinking, mixing up, matching and becoming one big bricolage. “The distance between the us and the online us is shrinking” thank to the up going speed from broadband. If Jeff didn’t do it already I would advise him to read two classics The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life – Erving Goffman and the Life on the Screen – Sherry Turkle. Besides his more social vision of the next web he also has some VC wisdom to share with us.

Tips and tricks to make technology innovation work in Europe:

• Success creates self-fulfilling prophecies. If one company has success, it can fund and help many other companies afterwards.
• Europe needs an VC equivalent of Kleiner Perkins a VC that invested in more than 300 (!) tech-startups
• Europeans should focus so much on their local market, and from the start build applications that are build for world domination (ehm scalable)
• Stop building local clones, go for the throat, forget the knock off’s
• Culture shift. Success should be celebrated, failure accepted and risk taking promoted.
• More sharing, networking and supporting.

I would add to that, more open coffee’s, more Next Web, and hey: We need an European Techcrunch!! But still one of the European problems is the big differences between languages and cultures.

The good things already in Europe

• Broadband access, faster and cheaper than whole of the us (Thank you KPN-Quest, you haven’t died for noting)
• Cellphones and mobile are here much better than in the US (Thank you Nokia and Eriksson) (We just leave Japan out of the picture here)

Herbert Blankenstein as an radio interview with Jeff online

Lessons to be learned

• Take risk, Start up, It’s ok to fail
• The Next Web are the people, contact is king (so go out and talk to people)
• Think big, don’t clone, forget the country and go for the world

Interesting is the reaction on some weblogs

According to Read/Write web it’s just the same old talk over and over again, Life of a Coder declares Jeff the first Frenchmen to like. Gary Reid thinks that Saul and Jeff should put their money where there mouth is, and actually invest in some risk taking European start-ups.

So I’m left with the question, are we really that bad in Europe, is there a need for change, and if so, what should we do?