Jeff Veen
“The web is going to be more like the way that we live and not just the way that we work” @Veen #wcsf
Back in the day, no one had cold drinks–except in winter–until someone, a doctor, figured out how to make ice which helped people. But it was up to an entrepreneur to figure out how to get it to people–how to store it, and market it. Not to make cold drinks but to repserve food and thereby to make it safer and people healthier. (And the really brilliant idea wasn’t to deliver ice to people but to deliver a way to make your own ice to the people–good health and cold drinks!
You might have noticed that gold is heavy. (Well, maybe you’ve never been lucky enough to hold enough gold in your hand to notice its weight!) The race was on to ship it, move it quickly and safely from point A to B. The brilliant idea that changed how we deal with gold was when someone realized that you didn’t have to physically move the gold. You could keep ledgers of the gold and transfer it. Wealth became data and the industry transformed.
The web, Jeff Veen argues, is no longer about selling assets but providing services that makes experiencing what’s on the web seamless.
How can we make sure that we are looking at the web in a way that will keep us relevant as the race =for tech change increases?
The qualities that contribute to the web are what will make us users successful.
He tells a story about how competitive the web was and how showing running code built consensus. His story concludes with the lesson to listen to and work with your user base. You might want to get it out as soon as possible–so do it! And get feedback. And when you do, don’t apologize.
The speed of iteration beats quality of iteration.
Here are some quotes he shared during his presentation which support this concept:
Be liberal in what you accept and conservative in what you send. Jon Postel
Small pieces loosely joined….can accomplish amazing things. (?? will find out)
Information wants to be free. Stewart Brand.
We put everything, even our most previous memories, our photos on the web. We trust the web. It’s available, it’s democratic.
And it’s about to spill out of our computers.
All of the data we’ve been aggregating everywhere together is going to be available everywhere.
The web works best when it’s free and available for everyone. People are selfish. But those selfish people will lose out in the end.
Well that’s it for the first session! Food blogging is next! I’m going to post that over on Wine Predator–share the wealth…
Sorry for typos –just trying to get it out! (Oh, wait –what was that Jeff said? Don’t apologize?? Just do it! So here it is!)
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The Write Alley 