WWW2008

Tim Berners-Lee audio at WWW2008

I recorded W3C President Tim Berners-Lee's press conference at this week's WWW2008 conference in Beijing.

I will write about the contents later. Click here for the audio and then click on the olive-colored play button.

Please forgive the mediocre sound quality; I record for my notes, and not primarily for broadcast. I came in a few seconds late as Berners-Lee was being introduced in alternating Chinese and English. The remainder of the press conference, including questions and answers, is in English.

Other posts from WWW2008 are here, and I'm Twittering here.

Update: I was having a glitch … Read more

WWW2008 - Snippets from William Chang of Baidu, plus some on the semantic web

Other than highlighting Baidu Chief Scientist William Chang's statement that China doesn't need Wikipedia, here is a selection from the Twitterati (including me) on his presentation, and a concurrent one on the semantic web.

web2asia: Robin Li of Baidu could not make it to his key note, Chief Scientist Dr. William Chang is taking over web2asia: facts on chinese internet: only 1/8 internet users earn usd 5000/year me: Baidu's William Chang: Only 1/8 of Chinese internet users earn $5,000/year. me: Chang: Half of Chinese users over 25, half under 25, according to … Read more

Baidu's William Chang: 'No reason for China to use Wikipedia'

William Chang, chief scientist leading Chinese search engine Baidu, said it's natural for Chinese to use Baidupedia (Baidu Baike) rather than the foreign Wikipedia.

"There's, in fact, no reason for China to use Wikipedia, a service based 'out there,'" Chang said at the WWW2008 conference in Beijing on Tuesday. "It's very natural for China to make its own products."

I agree that there's not always a reason for people to use global services, especially when what they deal with is primarily domestic. But with the wiki world, I think the value of … Read more

WWW2008 - Social media in 2020 to be pervasive, ambient

A panel of social media experts believe that in 2020, social media will be far more pervasive, interlinked, and location-aware than they are now. Here are my comments as published on Twitter, with some comments following. (Reverse chronological order)

David Shamma brings up what I've been wondering: What about security? Questioner answers vegetarian question by calling for show of hands. Old tech, hurrah! Marc Davis thinks in 2020, we'll have ambient data about stuff like who around us is vegetarian when we travel And David Shamma thinks it's more problematic: we need to manage different audiences. Marc … Read more

Live Blog WWW2008: Kai-Fu Lee of Google Greater China on cloud computing

I'm now sitting in the opening keynote of the 17th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2008) here in Beijing, adjacent to the newly opened Olympic Stadium.

The first presentation is by Kai-Fu Lee, president of Google Greater China. He's talking about "cloud computing," the general term for developing ways to turn our computer lives into something not tied to any single device.

So far, he's been outlining what cloud computing is, something that he admits is not news to anyone in this room full of industry and academic researchers, and highlighting all of Google's … Read more