Brave New Web - MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge

Just returned to work from attending the "Brave New Web" Enterprise Forum MIT event , at the Collonade in Boston, MA. The conference focused on Web 2.0 and its implications for the market and society at large today and more specifically, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

Have to say that it was an extremely valuable use of my time. I got to meet some great folks like Steve Kaufman of Applied Strategies International -whom I had a great discussion with and brought some good takeaways back home.

One highlight for me was getting to sit down and have a wonderful conversation about technological change with Juliette Powell (from Inspiration Festival) and her mother while checking my e-mail at the end of the day in the lobby. Juliette and her mother participated in a great breakout session named "From Geeks to Grandmothers, Extending the Reach of Technology" framed around discussing barriers to various non-technical audiences becoming involved in technology. It really brought to light some interesting broad technological adoption challenges in a personal way, with many of the attendees sharing their hilarious stories of their own non-techno parents' mishaps with technology.

See some additional wrap-ups of the events of the day:

• MIT EF "Brave New Web" Conference / A Call For New England Startups

• In the moment… notes from the MIT Enterprise Forum 2007 Winter Conference

• Brave New Web
  
  
• The Brave New Web? It's all business
  
  
• Steve Garfield was also there - here is his take on the event
  

This blogging thing is as tough as some say it is

I have committed the first sin of blogging- not posting frequently to maintain an active and engaged audience! When I set this blog up I thought there would be plenty of time in my day to write an entry, and like anything else that is worth doing in the world, the time is not there unless you make it.

I thought I would get back to the original idea that made me create this blog. As a higher education professional (and also a citizen of the 21st century) I had an aha! moment. I realized the information world was being flipped on its head. The real information age is just beginning, we are just starting to realize some of the benefits, and pitfalls, of such a world.

Many thought the Internet bubble/burst was the "internet revolution". I now look at it a pre-revoolution period that set the stage for what we are beginning to see now.

An incredible display of this is when I wanted a generic news update on the Mars probe missions, and expecting a bland discussion and maybe a couple of photos, I got this surprise !!

I think the example above illustrates that as technology folks building some of this stuff, we need to be aware that serving our audiences needs does not mean merely meeting their expectations of what they want to find on our site. Serving the audience means much more now, because sometimes the audience doesn't even know what it needs when they get to your site.

Sometimes a visitor thinks they need a news report, when in reality they really just need Martian clouds.