Speakers in the News »

5/05/06
DEREK FEATHERSTONE

Derek Featherstone

Sure the Internet economy is growing stronger and stronger. But, that does not mean that running a money-making tech business no longer presents a vast array of significant challenges. For ideas on making your entrepreneurial venture a success, read "Ten Smart Moves to Improve Your Business" by Derek Featherstone. Echoing the lean-and-mean sentiments of the current wave of online innovators, the author cautions against unnecessary growth. Featherstone writes, "Stay as small as you logically can: Small is flexible. Small can change direction in an instant if needed. I’m sure at some point my company will get bigger, but it won’t happen without good reason. Small is where it is at, baby (at least that is what all the other small companies are saying)." An international expert in online accessibility, Featherstone was part of this year's "Web 2.1: Making Web 2.0 Accessible" panel.

09:55am CST | +

5/04/06
TONY CONRAD

In yet another indication of the re-vitalized web economy, the blog search engine Sphere is generating lots of user buzz -- and investment funding. Tony Conrad, the founder of the new company, explains it as such: "The feedback from our beta launch gave us a lot of confidence that we're on the right path so we decided recently to raise $3.75 million from a select group of partners. . . We're very fortunate to have an A+ team around the table. Our investors are complemented by the talents of four advisors starting with our cofounder Toni Schneider along with Mary Hodder, Matt Mullenweg and Scott Kurnit - an exceptional crew to save us from ourselves from time to time. The growth of the blogosphere has outpaced anyone's expectations. With this financing, we're in position to provide bloggers and blog readers with a great blog search/ discovery experience. We're using the money to build a rock solid infrastrucutre, add features that people want and need (check out our custom range searches, related media, featured blogs and sphere it bookmarklet - all of which, I dare say, are great stuff) and hire a few very talented biz dev and engineering rockstars." Conrad spoke on the "New Startup Cultures" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

10:48am CST | +

5/03/06
MARKOS ZUNIGA

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga

By now, you've probably watched the video or read the transcript of the brilliantly satirical speech by Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Association on Saturday evening. Of course, many found the remarks of this comedian completely offensive, including Housing Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. A Democrat from Maryland, this representative expressed a concern that many of the jokes were "in bad taste." Hoyer's criticisms have been taken to task by man, including Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (pictured above), the founder of the very popular political blog Daily Kos. Writes Zúniga, "Colbert, like many of us, is crashing the gate in DC. The natives, not used to getting more than Jay Leno-style good-natured ribbing, don't like it when one of their own gets a serious dose of reality. And Steney Hoyer, more than almost any Democrat in the House, has been there a tad too long. Well, more than a tad. We need a Joe Lieberman of 2008, an entrenched do-nothing Dem desperately in need of a good primary challenger. Good to see Hoyer auditioning for the part." Co-author of the new book "Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics", Zuniga participated on the "Revenge of the Blogs: Election 2008" panel at this year's SXSW Interactive Festival.

11:32am CST | +

5/02/06
DAN GILLMOR

The author of "We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People For the People", Dan Gillmor has emerged as one of the world's foremost spokespersons for the citizen journalism movement as enabled by personal online publishing. Read his recent speech on this topic to an audience at Columbia University: "We, the former audience, have been freed from the constraints of the manufacturing model of the 20th Century. And, more and more, we are taking advantage of our liberation. We never had to be satisfied merely with the newspaper dropped on our doorstep in the morning, or the half-hour broadcast in the evening, but it used to take some effort to assemble a more diverse and nuanced report. No longer. Now we can stop being couch potatoes and engage with the news. We can roll our own reports, from whatever sources of traditional and nontraditional media we wish, based on our own choices and recommendations from others. Even better, we can join the emergent conversation. We can talk about and with the professionals, at least some of them. And if we wish -- as more and more people do -- we can create our own content and conversations. Not much of that latter effort is journalism in any traditional sense, but some of it plainly is, and amid the noise of the rest there is a great deal of signal, if we can just find and identify it." At the 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival, Gillmor also addressed this topic of citizen journalism.

11:04am CST | +

5/01/06
RICHARD STALLMAN

If Pete Rose can do it, then why can't Richard Stallman? According to a story in NewsForge, this noted contrarian recently charged attendees a $2.50 "autograph tax" at International Free Software Forum. Stung by online criticism of this strategy, Stallman explained his motivations to this publication: "Shortly after I arrived in FISL, someone asked me to sign his convention badge. I realized that thousands of people might attend, and signing thousands of convention badges could take hours. Therefore I said I would sign it in exchange for a contribution of 10 reais (5 dollars) for the Free Software Foundation. Likewise, I realized that hundreds or thousands might ask me to pose with them for photographs. So I decided to ask 5 reais for this, about $2.50, also for the Free Software Foundation. People who ask me to sign or pose are asking for some of my time, which needs must come from my other volunteer work for the cause. On most occasions, the total time involved is not very large, so I do as they ask, taking steps to make the process efficient. But this does not mean my time is theirs to dispose of. I think it is entirely proper to ask people to make a small contribution to the cause in exchange. By charging for autographs and for poses, I raised a few hundred dollars for the FSF and FSF Latin America, and perhaps saved myself several boring hours of signing badges. This money will help us spread the philosophy of free software--a difficult job, because so many users of the GNU operating system think it is 'Linux' and do not realize that it comes from the free software ideals." Stallman talked about the Free Software Foundation at the 2003 SXSW Interactive Festival.