DLD07: The sunset of the Web

Running notes from the Digital Life Design DLD07 conference in Munich (Germany) (Live video)

Publisher Hubert Burda clearly has the power to convene. The DLD07 room (picture) is packed, the program is even more packed. Both speakers and attendees are carrying badges that are all different - each a piece of a big painting by artist Pae White called "some network" - "that would be you", hosts Stephanie Czerny and Marcel Raichart tell the audience. The conference bills itself "carbon neutral".

A few words from the conference chairmen, Hubert Burda and the unconventional Israeli investor Yossi Vardi ("I'm very bullish about wifi and mobility"), then David Kirkpatrick (Fortune magazine) moderates the first panel, on "The future's future", with Caterina Fake (co-founder of photo-sharing site Flickr, and responsible for new products at Yahoo), Niklas Zennström (co-founder of Skype and now engaged in peer-to-peer video network Joost - also known with the codename "Venice Project", see this previous post) and Thierry Antinori (head of marketing at German airline Lufthansa).

Zennström: I'm still struggling to understand what "Web2.0" is, most people understand it as a change in era; the big difference is that we are starting to have a pretty decent Internet infrastructure in place; with the platform in place, we will see even more disruptive and fast-growing businesses. This curve is accelerating, and it will also start to have secondary impacts on other industries.

Fake: This infrastructure has enabled a whole new set of behaviors and ways in which people communicate, but Web2.0 is really a return to the roots of what the Internet was all about: communication with everyone, sharing, every piece of information potentially connected to every other piece. The dot-com era obscured those roots, the things that people really loved about the Internet.

Antinori: Lufthansa was the first airline to put Internet access on planes (60 of their 85 long-haul planes are equipped with the system) but then the provider (Boeing) turned off the service, they miscalculated their business plan. But it will come back, we are working on it.

Kirkpatrick asks whether software is going to be a differentiator for companies in every industry. Of course companies like Lufthansa can't afford the luxury of repeated failure (software crashes etc) like Internet startups - "you don't want beta airplanes". The pace of innovation is clearly accelerating - partially because of the ability to assemble pieces from different sources (open-source software etc). Zennström: we will see much more chaotic product development in many industries, it won't be about people sitting in a room and doing a 10-years plan, it will often be about putting pieces together in unexpected/unusual ways.

Fake: we're seeing the sunset of the Web. The idea of a web page is becoming less and less important. We carry mobile devices. We go to the Web to set up services, but then we receive them on the mobile device. Think of RSS etc, you have data that's broken up, mixed and matched. The Web is kind of breaking apart, and these pieces can be recomposed in various ways and used on different devices.

Comments

[Jonathan Marks]

I liked DLD - and you're right that Burda media know how to cluster intelligence. I was disappointed in this panel though. In subsequent interviews in Davos, Niklas came out with much more specific detail on what's planned for Joost and TV in general. Thierry Antinori was clearly uncomfortable answering some of the questions - I am guessing he has not used on-board Internet connections himself. Great that the videos are on line. Why did they have so much trouble with the microphones?

[BrunoG]

Hi Jonathan. The microphone thing was a mystery to me, too. As for Niklas, I guess there will be alot of buzz around Joost as soon as they can announce the first big deals with content providers.

[steve M]

That's really a smart and quick solution for video conferencing, without much efforts and time.
http://www.sony-conferencing.com/