Supernova Interview: Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research

In this interview, danah boyd of Microsoft Research discusses how, while people may share a lot of their information online, often they’re shaping what they hope we’ll perceive about them. Danah discusses how identity and perception are evolving in the Network Age.

Building Startups Today (#sn09 #startup2)

One of the great conversations that started at Supernova 2009 was around “Building Startups Today.” What does it take to build a great startup today? And how do you get it funded and connected to a passionate customer community?

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The original session video

Panel starts about 7 min 30 in with Moderator Dave McClure, Rashmi Sinha, Christine Herron and Bruce Jenett.

Part one:

Part Two:

Thought leading clips from the morning sessions

Translating traditional strategic practices in a digitally networked world.  Beyond personal, product or economic innovation, institutions must innovate everything from their operations, to their attitudes, to their roles in industry and society.  Our institutions are built upon infrastructures that cannot absorb digital networks much less re-tool around them.  Large organizations will exist but they will be fundamentally different in structure and priority from how they operate today.  Knowledge flow, not information flow.  Relationships, not just transactions.  The rationale of connecting people, not just the ability to do so.  Context as well as content.  Corporate infrastructures will not be the competitive differentiators they once might have been unless they invent new ways to create trust in relationships.

It’s not a financial crisis but the pivot of a shift in institutional performance.  A long-term deterioration is back of the undoing of the financial markets:  measuring the wrong indicators, inflating the value of outdated indicators, quarterly obsession.  Research is showing that there is no correlation between productivity, product and process innovation, or customer value and return on assets.  In fact, in the case of customers, they are realizing value at the expense of institutions, in multiples.  And creative talent, who crave passion for their work, continue to leave institutions, taking knowledge with them — thus depleting a key 21st centure asset. Collaboration has not been rewarded, only touted.  The global economy, whose infrastructure was shaped by Wall Street priorities, has been about the income of institutions, not their outcomes.  Organizations must devise business models that are pull driven — pulling people, connections, relationships into their domains — not push oriented — pushing sales, products, services on the customer.

The right kind of startup can find the right kind of money.  This market is a good filter over mediocre ideas; quirky concepts with potential value just do not cut it for the good funding sources.  [When there's stupid money, dumb stuff gets funded.]  You don’t need capital to try an idea — and sometimes, your side ideas are the ones that gain traction, so other people’s money isn’t desirable.  Sustaining the bootstrap mentality after investment capital is attained is critical to success in this environment.

The best business model for startups is subscription based.  It’s less risky for everyone, especially investors, if startups use free services as the bait for hooking subscriptions.  The gambling VCs are currently few and far between, tending to fund things like outmoded inventory plays.  If the traffic is there, it’s hard to ignore — but make sure you can monetize that traffic in ways other than advertising.  When it comes to platforms, make sure you own the email addresses, because then you can stake a claim to user relationships.

Supernova Interview: Phil McKinney of HP on Innovation

After yesterday’s afternoon session, we spoke with Phil McKinney who is CTO of HP’s Personal Systems group, and also runs the Killer Innovations podcast. Phil spoke about innovation, how one becomes an innovation “expert” and what it takes to get innovation into organizations.

Supernova Live Stream Recordings Day 2

Day 2 Started with our Opening Plenary Session: Crisis? What Crisis? Strategies for a Connected World
Moderator Kevin Werbach, JP Rangaswami, John Hagel, Umair Haque, Ellen Levy

The opening panel continues on this recording, and then we have the Wharton Talk by Karl Ulrich on
Innovation Tournaments

Panel starts about 7 min 30 in with Up from the Ashes: Building Startups Today with Moderator Dave McClure, Rashmi Sinha, Christine Herron, Bruce W. Jenett

Continuation of the Up from the Ashes panel:

REAL TIME FLOW TRACK

Co-Hosted by BT with Introduction by Track chair Tantek Celik and JP Rangaswami
then panel on Going with the Flow with Moderator Tim O’Reilly, Dick Costolo, Brett Slatkin, Monica Keller

Continuation of the “Going with the Flow” panel

Real Time Search Panel with Moderator Kevin Marks, Barney Pell, Caterina Fake, Sean Ammirati

Continuation of Real Time Search panel:

Real Time Collaboration Panel with Moderator David Weinberger, Jason Shellen, Paul Lippe, Laura Fitton, Deborah Schultz, Anna-Christina Douglas

Real Time Collaboration Continued:

Supernova Interview: Adam Greenfield of Nokia

At yesterday’s Supernova opening day event, Adam Greenfield discussed how humans have gotten used to using our urban spaces. One thing cities have done is to let us “reinvent ourselves” and “wrap the cloak of anonymity around us.” Today’s Network Age technologies, including social networks, have changed some of these rules and assumptions. As our profiles and ‘permanent records’ follow us, how will behavior and norms change in response? What are the implications of our connectedness for cities and urban design?

As promised, the Twilight Zone episode referenced at the end of the discussion is “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.”

Supernova Interview: Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment

“The glow in the theater used to be cigarettes – now it is the glow of cell phones, and kids texting to their friends, and their social networks from inside the movie.” This is how Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment described the immediacy of movie reviews and the way entertainment is commented upon, and potentially blasted by the Friday night it hits the theaters. The instant communication has changed what it means to be in the entertainment business.

One thing hasn’t changed. Even with all of our digital technology, “we don’t speak in 0′s and 1′s” Guber told me in our interview. All the digital storytelling in the world won’t move us – we are analog creatures, and the storytelling we enjoy has been baked into our DNA for thousands of years.

Thanks to Peter for taking the time to speak with us at Supernova.

Supernova Day 1, In Live Streaming Videos

Here are the Videos from Day 1 of the Supernova Conference
(updated – one of the videos was duplicated)
First Hour featuring Kevin Werbach’s opening remarks and speakers danah boyd and Adam Greenfield

Second Hour of the Supernova Conference, 12/1/09 including the end of the danah boyd and Adam Greenfield discussion, and the beginning of talks from Werner Vogels, Jonathan Zittrain, and Bradley Horowitz.

3rd Hour, Part 1 of 2, the continuation of the discussion with Werner Vogels, Jonathan Zittrain and Bradley Horowitz.

3rd Hour Part 2 (this segment starts around 9:00 into the file) – Guests include Umair Haque, Anil Dash, David Weinberger, and Andrew McLaughlin.

4th Hour includes the end of the Anil Dash, David Weinberger, and Andrew McLaughlin discussion as well as talks from Chris Anderson and Peter Guber. At the end, Guber is joined by Phil McKinney, discussion continues in the next segment.

Last hour, continuation of the talk by Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment, joined by Phil McKinney of HP, and the final part of the day, the Heather Gold Show, featuring Heather talking with  Umair Haque, Robin Chase of Zip Car, and danah boyd.