The book publisher who popularised the phrase 'web 2.0' was surprisingly nostalgic when interviewed by Jason Calacanis
For a future-facing festival, SXSWi's opening interview of Tim O'Reilly by Jason Calacanis was surprisingly retrospective, including the observations that led O'Reilly to coin the term "web 2.0" and the acquisition of GNN ? the web's first commercial portal site that he founded in 1993. A review of O'Reilly's achievements was a good way of introducing the most respected figures in tech publishing to a new audience, but that inevitably meant it lacked any fresh bite.
? O'Reilly set a high bar for "most unlikely SXSW quote'" prize: "Reagan is the father of Foursquare," he announced, then adding that while he was president, Ronald Reagan had no need to open the navy and air force GPS systems to civilians, but he had nevertheless done so.
? O'Reilly has a particular expertise in identifying and describing emerging tech trends. "What makes big idea into a brand? Big ideas are like trains ? people have to what to go that way. The big promise is that it belongs to everybody who wants it."
? Hardware used to be where the value was, and Microsoft was seen as a maverick for investing in software as the future. Then the value was in the open principles of the internet, and companies that thrived in the post-crash era were large consumer-populated databases: eBay, Amazon, Google, Craigslist. They collected value from their users ? harnessing collective intelligence. As for Google and Facebook: "They are great companies because what you get when you talk to Sergey [Brin] or Larry [Page], or to Mark [Zuckerberg], is that you know there is somebody wrestling with deep problems they really care about, not just optimising something to make money." Google lost that for a bit, he said, but Page is a big thinker. "He's in his element creating real enthusiasm, like Microsoft when Bill Gates really got the internet and said Microsoft is going to be a contender."
? What's web 3.0? O'Reilly is putting his money on sensors gathering information, rather than people entering information on a keyboard. (Think mobiles, with sensors including GPS, and sites like Facebook adding facial recognition.)
? Here's something you may not know: O'Reilly sold GNN to AOL, though he unwisely sold his AOL stock off too early. In fact as soon as he released it "didn't have a clue". He admitted that Cisco later offered to buy O'Reilly Publishing and when he questioned why they would what to buy a publisher, they told him: "You've been first more times than anyone else but have failed to exploit it."
? Calacanis asked why O'Reilly was interested in government and he said hewas always disappointed when seemingly intelligent people expressed an interest in politics. O'Reilly said it was important to differentiate between the two, and said the problem is the perception of "vending machine government", where people put in money and expect service back. Instead, the approach should be more of a platform, a technological analogy: "Citizen participation is not just a way to reshape the vending machine," he said, though he wouldn't commit to support either Republican or Democrat strategies on revising US state health care service Medicare, for example. "We need the smart people from both sides."
Rachel Weisz Miranda Kerr Sarah Shahi Anna Paquin Diane Kruger
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