Web 2.0 Expo

Didn't exhibit or speak but did walk the exhibit floor at Web 2.0 Expo in NYC yesterday.

It was surprisingly vibrant coming in the midst of the financial meltdown - just blocks away.

Source: Wall Street Journal Digital Network

Although there was some good gallows humor in among the crowd.

In my adhoc "survey", nearly all said traffic was either excellent or good. Although obviously anecdotal only, there was quite a bit more activity in Web 2.0's half of the Javitz Center than Interop's which was dead.

This vibrancy is either a sign of an innovative space with a good value proposition or a bunch of ostrich's hiding their head in the sand.

In any case, while there were definitely a number of me-to technologies, what struck me was the focus on business models and user experience as opposed to technology - big change from years past.

Can't mention everything (maybe I'll do a more complete overview if I have time) but here are a couple worth mentioning from my loop around the exhibitor floor.

Sightix stood out to me - in terms of both business model and technology. I wanted to show a good example here but unfortunately couldn't get online demo to work very well (not sure what I am suppose to select) or how to create my own account. (Maybe it is just me ....)

In any case, what I like about it is the focus on social relatioonships and the contextual linkages between people - not just that someone is part of your network but also the how and why. Are they a friend, a customer or your boss? (I think Sightix can show this.) This opens up a lot of possibilities - socially rich ERP/CRM is one good example. Business model was also EASY - along the lines of "Try it - if you like it, pay us on a CPM basis" - making it easy to experiment.

Another was Sun - a couple social computing initiatives in particular - Zembly.com and Sun's offering around GlassFish and Shindig (for OpenSocial) - that deserve a closer look. I also had an interesting discussion with Angelo Rajadurai (Rajadouri) regarding how to "integrate" - or better yet - cross fertilize (my words) disparate but related communities. Is this the new (or is the new new) Sun?