Web 2.0 Summit

I watched two videos from the 2010 Web 2.0 Summit.  The first video I watched was an interview with Mark Zuckerberg.  The second video I watched was Mary Meeker speaking about internet trends. Click each name to view the videos if you would like. I would recommend watching each, as they are both informative and interesting.  Here are my reflections on each:

Mark Zuckerberg:

There first video I watched from the Web 2.0 Summit was the one with Mark Zuckerberg.  I chose this one because his company, Facebook, has had a big influence on a lot of people’s social life.  Some of the topics discussed were the new message system on Facebook.  This was the first I had heard of the new message system on Facebook, because it has not been introduced on my profile as of today. I thought this was interesting that they are now setting up email. I expect this to me widely used, due to the number of users they have.  Mark mentioned that now over 50% of Facebook users log in at least once per day, so I would expect people to start using this email system.  One reason people might not immediately use Facebook’s email system would be because of privacy concerns.  Mark touched on privacy concerns; however, not in relation to the new message system.  Facebook has been in the news over the past few years because people are unsure about their privacy when using the social service.  Mark stated that they push the boundaries to see where those exist because there is no black and white answer.  Another subject touched on by Mark was how entrepreneurs can utilize Facebook to help grow their business.  It was mentioned that the rich data sets that exist within Facebook, allows innovation from entrepreneurs.  I like when Mark said “one of the best things is that we are building real value in the world, not just taking value from other companies.”  I feel that this comment was saying that they welcome innovation into the world and to use their platforms to help with that innovation.  I think that Facebook will be around for a while and will continue to grow and expand for years to come.  It will be interesting to see what direction Facebook decides to go and if any other big competitors will arise.

Mary Meeker:

Mary Meeker discussed internet trends and changes that are predicted to happen in the future.  For instance, mobile users have been increasing as smartphones become more and more popular.  She stated that smartphones will out-ship PC shipments within 2 years.  Mary also spoke about online advertising and how much more advertising money will be shifted to the online community from the offline community (TV, Newspaper, etc.).  The online community now includes mobile users, so advertising online will increase due to the increasing number of mobile internet users.  She also made a great point when saying that advertisements online are becoming more relevant.  I have noticed this lately when using the internet.  Advertisements seem to catch my attention more because they are more along the lines of my interests.  This is due to the information that people put on social sites such as Facebook and also how advertisers are utilizing these tools to pinpoint the exact market they are trying to reach.  Mary went on to mention how E-commerce took 15 years to get 5% of the retail market.  Recent trends seem to suggest that this will increase much quicker over the next couple of years due to mobile users increasing.  It will be interesting to see how much advertising is geared towards the mobile community over the next year and how this affects advertising campaigns from businesses.

Lync 2010 & Webex

I think Lync 2010 is an excellent tool no matter if you are using it in the office for a business or for personal use.  Lync allows users to share in real time which could be very useful when completing a project or conducting a meeting.  Lync allows for users to not have to be in one place to conduct a business meeting.  The virtual sharing that Lync allows users to do is just like being in a meeting room with all those people.  I like the recording feature, so that if you are unavailable to view the meeting at the time it is happening, you can catch up on it later, without missing anything.  I think the call feature is unique in that if you are in the middle of a call on your laptop, you can send it to your cell phone so that you can continue the call if you have to leave your computer for some reason.  All of these tools provided by Lync could definitely help businesses with sharing information and conducting meetings.

Webex also seems to be a great tool for businesses to use.  I actually experienced this type of sharing while working in a State Farm Insurance office.  I was logged in the meeting via my computer at work and picked up the phone and dialed a phone number.  I could hear the conductor of the meeting talking through the phone while watching the PowerPoint she was going over on my own computer screen.  There were hundreds of agent staff members listening to the same meeting at the same time.  I am not sure if they were using Webex but it was definitely a similar product.  

These products are useful and have proving to help businesses conduct meetings.  I think they could also help in personal areas too, especially when working on a group project in school.  I know last semester, I used Skype to help finish a project while it was snowing and some people in my group could not get out to meet up.  I think it would have been better to have a tool like Webex or Lync to share information as opposed to just talking on Skype.  I will definitely consider these tools next time I am in the same position.