Ignition

Steven Levy in Newsweek on Web 2.0 (via JD): "Forget surfing the Web. From now on, we're speeding on cigarette boats." I really enjoyed meeting Steven at the conference, and getting the chance to thank him for being largely responsible (with his book Hackers) for my technophilia.

From The Inbox

I'm still going through the things that piled up (literally and virtually) while I was running around last week. Some worthwhile stops—

• The Great Sonsini: "Sonsini is 63 years old, and as chairman and chief executive officer of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, he runs the largest, most successful law firm of its kind in the world."


• Fettered Access, on litigation concerning the Prelinger Archives (here's BoingBoing on same): "The suit argues that recent changes in copyright law produces an extraordinary 'orphan class' of creative work that shrinks the public domain and thus limits free speech."


• Full Disclosure, on patenting legal work: "Among the patents that have been issued are a method for network-based legal services (#6,366,925), a method for an Internet-based attorney-client billing system (#6,622,128), and a method for providing electronic discovery on computer databases and archives (#6,738,760)."


• Michael A. Clark on digital voicemail: "[W]hat do we do about the digital VM on Denise's desk-top or laptop? Because, all other things being equal, it is unquestionably discoverable."


• In addition to letting users easily apply a Creative Commons license, Flickr now lets you browse photos by type of license.

Terra, Firma And Otherwise

I'm back SoCal after an incredible time in San Francisco last week, capped off by watching my ten month old *get* (for the first time) what's happening when an airplane lands. So cool. Some assorted things that caught my eye since I went offline last Friday:

• Nike's Mp3 Run is no iPod killer, but has some neat features: "Wireless Bluetooth speed-and-distance sensor attaches to your shoe and records time, distance, and pace during your workout. On-demand voice-audio system provides above stats at the press of a button." Could be key for all y'all training hard right now for the NY Marathon.


• AboutFlowers.com promises to teach you about flower therapy.


• If the flowers don't fix your mojo, it's time to break out the Money House Blessing air freshener (spotted, goodness knows how, in my 95-year old grandmother's powder room) and the Double Fast Luck Soap.


• Finally, they don't make you Harvard Business School Dean for nuthin'. Here's Kim Clark from tonight's 60 Minutes story on the current generation of moms, Staying at Home: "[Bussinessmen are] asking the wrong question. The right question is, how do we change to keep this talent active and involved with us?"

Web 2.0 Pics

Jerry Yang

I took a paltry number of mostly crummy photos at Web 2.0, in marked contrast to Derrick Story, who took copious great ones. But I didn't have to lug around all the gear he did ;).

Jerry Yang at Web 2.0

Why does Yahoo! have permission to do anything (mail, calendars, personals, etc.), asks John? "The only good decision we made was calling the company Yahoo!"

Speculations about where Terry Semel might go next, can you address those? "As far as I know Terry's very happy. As far as I know, he's got a lot of Yahoo! stock, which is a good motivator. ... He makes his own decisions, but I know he intends to have a great time at Yahoo!"

Data, in the Yahoo! sense is a very personal thing. "Privacy is a huge issue that I would rank right up there with IP." Yahoo! is able to analyze user preferences and spot trends. "That data is their thing, and if they want to take it somewhere else, I don't think anyone can stop them."

Re forthcoming services: "I don't think we're going to do what Kim is doing because that looks reallly hard. If you do it right, it's really cool." "If we can do a better job by integrating it into Yahoo!, we should do it."

What are you worried about, what are you excited about? Whether you call it Web services or something else, they're spending a lot of time thinking about today's big C word, Convergence. Worries? "The next two guys at Stanford working on their PhDs."

Jeff Jarvis asks whether Yahoo! is too cluttered today for his taste? Yes. "If I got a dollar for every time someone comes to me and says 'I didn't know that...'" Audience memeber: "You do!" As far as the UI, consistency, quality, and knowing what to expect matters. He thinks they're going to begin uncluttering.

Marc Canter asks about open source infrastructure, financial support. "What do you think about the idea of helping the world?" "I like helping the world." But if they don't get the necessary number of page views each night, they don't have a business. Yahoo! are big advocates of open source infrastructure things. On the issue of APIs: Yahoo! is a ten year old company, that has radically transformed itself multiple times. There is an effort to standardize the way we communicate with each other, someday, Yahoo! will open its APIs. On the first point, "giving money away is a lot harder than making it." You have developers all around the world now. He's less worried about the monetary piece than whether they're doing enough to advance developers as a whole.

Esther Dyson asks what he's doing in China re the government (e.g. ban of Google News). Jerry says there's now a tremendous amount of hope and confidence there. As a society, they've started down a path that's a one way street, to feed this economy, they have to give the middle class more support and independence. Yahoo! operates in China and Jerry has concerns about supporting a government promulgating values he may not personally support. Ultimately, he feels that by being there, Yahoo! is helping rather than hurting. If you can influence the new generation of thought leaders now, this cuts below the rhetoric. This is what you've got to invest in, create that dialog now.