AlwaysOn: Opening Evening

Greetings from beautiful, sweltering Stanford, CA.

If you're reading this at 6:20 p.m. PDT or so, you should follow along with the AO Live Webcast. Here's what will be going on at AlwaysOn. I'll be updating this post intermittently throughout the evening.

John Hennessy (President, Stanford University)

Tom Byers asks Stanford's president about the role of universities in solving society's most difficult problems. Universities are home to "the most creative people in the world:" graduate students. "They're the doers. They're the people who don't see the inhibitions to innovation."

AO 100

Key themes for this year's list: consumers (entertainment, information, socializing), mobile. Many familar names, old friends even, including Technorati and CafePress. Alex Welch of Photobucket accepted the Top Newcomer award, and Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO of Blue Lithium, accepted the Top Innovator award.

"The Computer Is Personal Again"

Todd Bradley of HP. HP has an ad campaign focused on achievers who use technology to drive the way they work and play:

"The millenial generation is generating its own content." Stat: among 21-year olds, 61% of Web use is to access material created by someone they know. Kids know: "Which is more fun, Internet or TV?" "Internet!!!" HP is orienting its focus around enabling storytellers to tell better stories.

Fireside Chat

Ed Leonard of DreamWorks, Todd Bradley of HP, moderated by Al Delattre, Global Managing Director at Accenture. Barriers to entry for creation continue to plunge, according to Ed Leonard: "The stuff that our animators are running to do Over The Hedge is the same stuff you can buy from HP.com."