Read/WriteWeb's Web 2.0 Summit coverage sponsored by Yahoo!
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It's the end of a hectic week of conference-going for your R/WW correspondent - and so\ntime for a wrap-up of my thoughts on the Web 2.0\nSummit. Firstly, my overriding feeling is that this year's conference was a lot\ndifferent from last year's. It was still a great conference, but in a different\nway - perhaps reflected in the name change to Summit (a more business-sounding title).\nLast year there were a lot more developers and designers running around, this year the\ncrowd was overwhelmingly from the media and business worlds. No doubt because of this, I\nalso felt this year's conference lacked in cutting edge new products - and I didn't learn\nmany new insights about Web technology. Having said that, it was still a very enjoyable\nconference - O'Reilly Media and CMP put on a great show. There was plenty of schmoozing\nin the hallways and lots of excellent discussions.

Why was 2006 different to 2005?

As\nothers have pointed out, the Summit had an 'exclusive' feel to it due to the \$3k price\ntag and business focus - and this meant a lot of the development and design innovators in\nthe Web world were not present. The reason why the developer/designer set has been\ncrowded out of this conference reflects the fact that, over the last year, traditional\nmedia companies (e.g. EMI, Fox Interactive, the TV networks) have entered the Web 2.0 world\nin a big way. That is a trend that will only intensify over the coming year, as web\ninnovation becomes mainstream. Also more traditional big tech companies are doing 'web\n2.0' things - e.g. Intel released an enterprise suite at the Summit and companies like\nIBM and Symantic were in attendance. These trends are inevitable - and welcome. Because\nhow else will little web 2.0 startups be ultimately successful, unless they're embraced\nby the mass market that big companies (or VC money) can bring them?

I do feel sad though that the developers and designers aren't as much a part of the\nWeb 2.0 Summit (nee Conference) any more - but perhaps this is where the Web 2.0 Expo\nwill come in, the new sister conference being held in April 2007. I certainly hope so,\nbecause finding out about new web technologies and trends is what I love the best.

The Best of the conference

To be purely selfish, undoubtedly my personal highlight was seeing Lou Reed play live\n(courtesy of AOL). I've read some cynical reports about the 20-minute set he played -\nthat he was surly to the crowd and ironic etc. But isn't that what you always get from a\nLou Reed show? I thought his set was great and he's a legend to me - 'nuff said! :-)

But onto actual Web stuff... highlights included:

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• Jeff Bezos, who spoke on day 1, was especially interesting - talking about Amazon's\nWebOS initiatives. This is a topic that Read/WriteWeb has covered extensively and\nhearing Bezos describe the background and strategy around this was fascinating. I\nwould've liked to hear a bit more about their future plans, but then that's something\nR/WW will dig into for you! ;-)
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• The desktop/Web integration theme was hot this year - with Adobe and Laszlo both in\nattendance. I will explore both technologies in future posts. Also Zimbra\nannounced an offline mode for their web office suite. As Scott Karp nicely put it\nto me later, the offline technologies we're seeing are very reflective of this\ntransitional online/offline period of the Web. Broadband is not ubiquitous yet\n(ironically demonstrated by the poor WiFi at the Summit venue!), so that's why we're\nseeing all these offline solutions.
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• Mary Meeker's The State\nof the Internet, Part 3. It was another 10-minute quickfire powerpoint show by\nMeeker, with data points hitting the stunned audience like machine gun bullets. But it's\ngreat data and I will be delving into the powerpoint when I get a chance!
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• A Conversation\nwith Ray Ozzie - although Ozzie didn't reveal anything new, he's a person who\ncommands a great deal of respect and so is a worthy successor to Bill Gates in terms of vision\nand strategy. I also enjoyed hearing the counterpoint \"office is dead\" view from Steve Gillmor in the press room afterwards.
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• The panel\nfeaturing 5 teenagers and 5 parents talking about what they use on the Web was\ninteresting, if a little awkward at times. What would be great is if some of the Web\nresearch or analytics firms did bigger studies of this - and released it to the blog\nworld. Then we'd have some substantive data to build on and analyze. It is certainly\nimportant to know what 'real world' people use on the Web, so I viewed this panel as just\na taster for the kind of data we're crying out for.
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The disappointments

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• The Web 2.0\nSummit Launchpad fell a little flat, in my opinion. There were some innovative\nproducts there (e.g. 3B, Omnidrive, Sharpcast), but some of the others seemed a little\nderivative. I don't mean to dismiss their potential, as no doubt some will make great\nbusinesses. And I admire anyone who goes out and does a web startup, so I wish all of\nthem the best with their products. But I really wanted to see the next Zimbra, or the\nnext JotSpot, or the next big thing. I don't think we saw that. I'd be interested\nin your opinions on this (feel free to comment).
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• I didn't come away from the conference having learned much - even though I enjoyed\nthe conference overall.
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• The intent to have more international voices was great, but there still seems to be a\ncultural disconnect. Liz Gannes at Gigaom called the international speakers (and other people outside of the inner tech circles) \"cultural exhibits\". Personally I think the right intent is there from the conference\norganizers to make the event more international, so hopefully next year there will be\nmore innovative companies from outside the Valley - both speaking and showing their\nproducts. There's a lot going on outside the valley in terms of innovation, as R/WW's International\nWeb Apps series has proven.
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• Also disappointing was that I couldn't respond to all the email requests I got to\ncheck out new products, and meet all the people I wanted to! :-(
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Summary

Overall, I\nhave to say I enjoyed the conference. Last year in my wrap-up I probably came across as a\nlittle too enthusiastic - even though I called last year's post Cautious Optimism and\nCynical Buzz. This year I wasn't as excited, but the conference was just as busy and\nmaybe a little more 'mature' in terms of where the industry is headed. So my feeling\ncoming away from the conference is that it was a great crowd of people there and the web\nindustry is still alive and thriving. Are we in a bubble? Absolutely, so the cautious\noptimism and cynical buzz remains. 

Some folks, like Ben\nMetcalfe, think the conference has lost its edge. Maybe it has, but the Web 2.0\nSummit is a different beast now than it was last year - and that's a sign of the times.\nOr to put it another way, so Lou Reed does corporate gigs now... hey, it's still great\nmusic! ;-)

Pics: Dave Forrest, RJ,\nDave McClure

Poll

Tell us what you think in terms of what you learned from the Summit - either if you\nwere lucky enough to be there, or from the reports filed by me and other blogs/sites. Let\nus know in the following poll. Plus comments (as always) are welcome.