Angling for Control in the Sea of Social Networks:
The Future of Venturing in the Community Internet
Saturday, April 18, 2009
at the California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
Like remoras around whales such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, hundreds of thousands of smaller social networks flourish or struggle, based on diverse affinities of politics, hobbies, tastes, professions, and, of course, shared dislikes!
“Socnet” proliferation amplifies issues that increasingly worry users—“What access do friends of friends have? Is my content still mine? What about advertisers?” Along the way they become weary of repeated data entry, leery of ever-proliferating and incomprehensible “Terms of Service,” and angry when a site overreaches.
Meanwhile, smaller socnet sites want to exploit the behemoths’ reach while hoping for standards, the big guys seek to define the standard, and most all want maximal use if not control of user data.
Combining these concerns with blogs, Twitter, social shopping, and wikis yields today’s rich but uncertain techno-brew. Against this background of interaction and tension, today’s keynote, entrepreneurs and panelists will explore where we are going, including issues such as whether OpenSocial, data portability and other initiatives will succeed, how individual socnet sites survive and flourish, and the nature of infrastructural and other opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurial Keynote
Gordon Gould
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
ThisNext
www.thisnext.com
Formerly CEO of Blogsmith (acquired by AOL), President of Silicon Alley Reporter/Rising Tide Studios (acquired by Dow Jones), and Founder & CEO of UPOC (acquired by Dada Mobile).
User Community Keynote
Doc Searls
Senior Editor, Linux Journal
Chair of ProjectVRM and Berkman Fellow at Harvard University
Recipient of Google/O’Reilly Open Source Award for Best Communicator
Co-Author, “Cluetrain Manifesto”.
Panelists
Melissa Leonard
Serial Entrepreneur
Andrew Shaindlin
Caltech Alumni Association
www.alumni.caltech.edu
Mark Suster
Partner
GRP Partners
www.grpvc.com
Moderator and Producer
Michael Krieger
Counsel
Willenken Wilson Loh & Lieb LLP
www.willenken.com
Event Sponsor
Date
Saturday morning, April 18, 2009
Registration and Continental Breakfast:
8:00 a.m. Baxter Lecture Hall
Program:
9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Networking:
11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Baxter Lecture Hall
Location
Baxter Lecture Hall
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Directions/Maps: Directions to the Forum; Caltech’s Interactive Map
Cost
$40 on-line registration fee. $50 at-the-door. $10 for students with full-time student ID (must show at door); free to Caltech students.
Registrations are taken on-line up to 5:00 p.m., Thursday April 16, 2009. There are no refunds for no-shows.
