Paul Mooney

Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0? It's something that you and I participate in and benefit from. The name was first coined to describe the added value that individual members, collectively called the community brought to Amazon, ebay and Craigslist.

Web 1.0 was about presence, so Web 2.0 is about participation.

We’re all blogging now, leaving comments and trackbacks on each others blogs in an ongoing conversation. We talk about the tools and technologies that help us get the most out of this fascinating digital lifestyle. We’re adding value to our own lives by listening and learning from each other.

Some of us are turning this digital lifestyle into real money by selling advertising and creating a buzz about the next new thing. Conferences have become celebrations as we meet and greet people whom we have known through blog posts and trackbacks.

I’m very excited about returning to San Francisco for Web 2.0.2. I had a wonderful time last year, it was the best run conference I ever attended, Tim and John joined the conversation and contributed to an intimate atmosphere that was electric and inspiring. I am looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones and blogging and tracking back about the experience.

Web 2.0 2005 is sold out, and registration is closed. We are full to capacity, and cannot accommodate any more registrations. Once the event begins, see web2con.com for links to the latest news and announcements at the event. Sign up here for information about Web 2.0 2006.

At last year's Web 2.0 Conference, we gathered to discuss the implications of the Web becoming a platform. This year, we're taking Web 2.0 further, focusing not just on declaring the platform, but showing where the innovation is happening and what we might expect in the coming year. We're assembling a select group of thought leaders and innovators to explore this year's theme--"Revving The Web"-- focusing on the services, applications, businesses, and models that are reshaping the Internet, particularly for media and entertainment, communications and mobile, policies and legal issues, and the concept of the web OS.

NJ Code Camp sign-up

NJ Code Camp Registration

The registration site for the first New Jersey Code Camp is now ready. You MUST register before the event. Space is very limited and walk ins at the door will not be allowed to enter.

I'm signed-up! It's going to be a great day! DonXML and ScottW have been working hard all year to put this together, we're going to have to buy them a few beers at the end of the day.

XPS Experience

Traveling in to NYC on the train I read in the NYTimes that an announcement of a new line of PC’s called XPS will be made today by Michael S. Dell at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Central Park South in Manhattan.

I went to the Times Square Weston for a Technology in Small Business event by ZDnet and Intel with a fine keynote by Gay Gaddis who’s responsible for those glossy Dell circulars and emails we receive every month. Gay gave a great talk about Small Business Marketing and Advertising and how using computers has helped her create a very successful company; C3.

It was fun New York event because the audience was very attentive and with all our collective experience we were well able to contribute to the conversation. As the meeting broke up at noon, I caught up with a few friends who were there, I asked Gay if she was going to the Ritz-Carlton, but she knew nothing about the announcement and had to catch a flight back to Austin.

So I headed uptown on a glorious September day, the fine staff at the Ritz-Carlton directed me to the lower mezzanine and I was in luck as the event hadn’t started yet. I went for a short walk in Central Park and the place was buzzing with people enjoying the fine weather.

I went back to the posh Hotel and signed-in just after the BBC, got the spec sheet on the new Dell XPS brand and the expanded digital TV portfolio. The first thing that caught my eye was the NVIDIA 256 GeForce Go 7800 GTX Ultra, so right there and then I knew this was not your Fathers Dell PC.

When the event began I walked into the room and straight towards a 50 inch plasma HDTV, there was an NFL game on and the players looked like they were in the room.

Next I came upon the XPS M170, a 915 Express Chipset Centrino laptop with a 17" TrueLife widescreen display. I powered it ON, fired up the Wi-Fi, logged-on to Channel9 and posted to the community that I was about to meet Michael Dell!

Michael is a very mellow dude and I was impressed once he began to talk, because he really is a System Builder after all. I got to ask the first question after the formal presentation and I told him I was a Windows Vista beta tester and Michael said I am too. I could see that these systems are Windows Vista enabled. Michael directed me to his Windows Vista site, cool!

Google day

We wanted something special for our birthday…

by Anna Patterson, Software Engineer

Google opened its doors in September 1998, and we’ve been pursuing one mission ever since: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. For our seventh birthday, we are giving you a newly expanded web search index that is 1,000 times the size of our original index.

I’m proud of everything we’ve accomplished in the years since Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up the first Google data center in Larry’s dorm room at Stanford. Today, along with web search based on Larry and Sergey’s original BackRub search engine, we offer specialized search for everything from satellite images to academic papers, local business info to your own computer. We’ve also built software for email and mobile services, photo management and computer-to-computer voice calling, to name just a few things.

But search remains our heart and soul, so I’m especially pleased by this latest expansion of our index, which makes Google more than 3 times larger than any other search engine. S