Web 2.0 observations…

Though this is my first Web 2.0 conference (ah…does it count that I read all about the last one?), I had a few general observations.

• Had a brief conversation with Microsoft’s new CTO, Ray Ozzie today. An impressive, accomplished and smart guy, it was nice to chat with him though he didn’t know me from Adam and he was very gracious. If he is indicative of the “new Microsoft” and the open nature of their thinking, exciting things are going to be coming out of Redmond

• The internet as a platform has a HUGE amount of energy, effort and enthusiasm behind it. There are so many doors being opened to opportunity, open source software that fuels the building of new companies, and people working on the building blocks (open infrastructure, trust, formats, identity, etc.) that the momentum is palpable

• The user is centric. Not proprietary platforms, formats, or applications. All the discussions about open source infrastructure, identity management, tagging, blogging, user contributed content, etc., are ALL focused on setting up this next generation of the internet in the most open and user-centric way possible

• There are too many people here. The workshop rooms were too small, too hot, and NOT geared toward learning and open discussion

• For a venue that attracts the cognoscenti and leaders of the nextgen internet-as-a-platform, the lack of power outlets (*everyone* has a laptop) and the woefully inadequate WiFi is inexcusable. (Uploading the 50MB mp3 file from the AttentionTrust yesterday was impossible until I returned to my hotel at 11pm last night…even general surfing was dog slow).

I’m certainly not in a position to prognosticate about exactly what the internet-as-a-platform future will look like, but I do know one thing: ignore what’s going on right now at your own peril.