Live from San Fran

Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 conference: Cognitive surplus

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:42:00 GMT

One of the highlights of the trip for me: a very smart and engaging talk from Clay Shirky at the Web2.0 conference.

I must admit I only heard about Clay Shirky and his new book Here Comes Everybody a few weeks ago in London, while it is apparently already all the crave in San Fran, in the lineage of other fundamental social media books such as The Long Tail or the Tipping Point.

I just bought the book so will talk more about it after I finish it, however I think the subject of Shirky's talk at Web2.0 was slightly different. In a very entertaining way he laid out his theory of the "cognitive surplus": participative media such as blogging, wikipedia, ratings, reviews, etc are the result of people shifting their cognitive surplus time from watching TV to doing something more interactive. Therefore participative media are here to stay and users expectations vis-a-vis entertainment and media are shifting from just Consume to Consume, Produce and Share.

The outline of the speech is on Shirky's blog and the video of the full speech is below. I highly recommend watching it, they guy has a good caustic humor too!

what a crazy week!

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:41:00 GMT

Ok, it has been so busy that I had absoutely no time to post anything. But I took lots of notes, and I will deal with the backlog any time soon :)

How to be a tech entrepreneur

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:08:00 GMT

Reporter Ashley Norris has been watching Web Mission 08 and getting to know the UK tech start up representatives as they meet and greet some of the names of Silicon Valley. The article mentions Sonia, as well as all the other reps. Sonia's comment on the article was that it's a very interesting and sharp summary. It's worth a read

What the Web Mission peeps have been up to

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:32:00 GMT

The Agenda for WebMission looks to be incredibly busy! With lots of meetings and presentations packed in, plus some socialising down-time too!

Today the Web Missioners are learning about the intricacies of business in the US before farewell drinks and then partying til dawn...

Date	Time	Event

Saturday 19th April 2008		Travel to US
Morning	10:05	Depart LHR (UA0955)
Afternoon	13:09 14:00-15:00	Arrive San Francisco @ SFO Transport from SFO to Clift Hotel
Evening	19:00-20:30 20:30-late	Welcome Cocktails @ Clift Hotel Full Web Mission Party only Clift Hotel Bar (Open Invite)

Sunday 20th Aprl 2008		San Francisco The Buzz
Morning	Early-10:00 10.00-10:30	FREE TIME Transport from Clift Hotel to Brunch Location
Brunch	10.30-13.30	Peer-to-Peer: Valley Entrepreneur and UK Entrepreneur brunch Full Web Mission Party + Guest List
Afternoon	13.30-14.00 14.00-late	Transport from Brunch to Clift Hotel FREE TIME

Monday 21st April 2008		“The Valley Ecosystem: from corporate to entrepreneur”
Morning	08:30-09:30 09:30-13:00	Transport from Clift Hotel to Oracle Tour around Oracle. Full Web Mission Party Only
Lunch	13:00-14:00
Afternoon	14:00-15:00 15:00-18:30	Transport from Oracle to Clift Hotel Free for 1:1s
Evening	18:30-19:00 19:00-21:00 21:00-late	Transport from Clift Hotel to Orson (SF) HSBC Going Global Event hosted by Glasshouse San Francisco with Michael Birch, CEO of Bebo, interviewed by Jim Buckmaster, CEO of craigslist. More

Tuesday 22nd April 2008		“Meet the Companies and Meet the VCs”
Morning	08:30-09:30 10:00-13:00	Transport from Clift Hotel to Menlo Park Company Presentations to VCs and Press Full Web Mission Party Only
Lunch	13:00-14:00
Afternoon	14:00-15:00 15:00-18:30	Transport from Menlo Park to Clift Hotel Free for 1:1s
Evening	18:30-19:00 19:00-21:00 21:00-late	Transport from Clift Hotel to Oracle Dinner Oracle: Intimate Candlelit Dinner Web Mission Party + Guest List FREE TIME.

Wednesday 23rd April 2008		“Web 2.0 Expo”
		supporting WebMission08 companies at Web 2.0 Expo
All Day	08:30-17:30	Web 2.0 Expo in san Francisco
Evening	18:00-19:30 19:30-late	Drinks/Nibbles at Bebo offices with Michael Birch Full Web Mission Party Only Free for 1:1s

Thursday 24th April 2008		“Doing Business in the US”
Morning	Early -11.00 11.00-12.30	Free for 1:1s Master Class Presentations from: • Accounting Firm • PR Firm • Legal Firm (Heller Ehrman) • Bank (HSBC) • UK Government Support (UKTI) Web Mission Party Only
Lunch	12:30-13:00
Afternoon	13:00-14:00	Master Class breakout meetings: • Accounting Firm (Room 1) • PR Firm (Room 2) • Heller Ehrman (Room 3) • HSBC (Room 4) • UKTI (Room 5) Office & Meeting facilities provided by HE
Evening	18:00-18:30 18.30-20.30 20:30-21:00 21:00-late	Transport from Clift Hotel to Consul General‟s Residence Farewell Drinks and Canapés at British Consulate. Full Web Mission Party + Guest List Transport from Consul General‟s Residence to Clift Hotel Final Night Out Open Invite

Friday 25th April 2008		"Travel to the UK"
Morning	09:30-10:30	Transport from Clift Hotel to SFO
Afternoon	12:59	Depart San Francisco (UA0930)
Saturday 26th April 2008		"Arrive in the UK"
Morning	07:10	Arrive London Heathrow

A brunch at Jim and Susan's place!

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:19:00 GMT

Today was probably one of the highlights of the trip, although we're only just at the beginning! The whole WebMission party got spoiled with a fantastic brunch reception at the home of Craig's list CEO Jim Buckmaster and his partner Susan Best, owner of Best PR and director at the Glasshouse.

It was amazingly cool! Jim and Susan were stunningly generous to welcome a party of 70 people (maybe more...) into their own home. We completely invaded! They invited some great American guests to give the WebMission party a sense of how informal networking works in the Valley.

There were lots of very interesting people around. I briefly met one of the whiz kids from Auctomatic, Brit Harjeet Taggar who moved to San Fran a couple of months ago and just sold the company to Live Current Media. There seems to be an active UK network around here: Susan is Scottish, Michael Birch from Bebo is British, the people from the British Consulate / UK Trade & Investment seem to be very active...

I also met Richard Tyler, Enterprise Editor from the Telegraph and Mark Prisk, MP Shadow Minister, Business & Enterprise, to whom I could not resist to mention how the Centre for Policy Studies is using Webjam to create an online community and discussion platform

Checking in

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:00:00 GMT

The whole Webmission party is staying at The Clift, a very hip hotel from the Morgans Hotel Group (that also owns the Royalton and the Hudson in New York).

The view from my room is quite nice and best luxury of all, there is a nice Bose loudspeaker for my Ipod :)

What I am taking with me

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:00:00 GMT

a quick glimpse at my toolkit for the trip

Webjam goes to the Valley

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Less than 24 hours after having landed in London back from LA, I learned I would be just go straight back to California 3 days later! Webjam made it to the Web Mission 08 trip and I am off for a packed week of business meetings and networking events.

Webjam is joining 20 UK Web 2.0 companies to travel to San Francisco and explore new opportunities for growth with key people in Silicon Valley. The organisers seem to have done a fantastic preparation and the program looks very promising.