Image by 5348 Franco via FlickrI have had my differences with Tim O’Reilly over the years on certain issues, but his keynote at Web 2.0 Expo resonated with me at many levels. I am writing this post several days later, so hopefully my notes suitably reflect my thoughts at the time. A lot of people have written about what he had to say, but hopefully this post provides a different perspective.
He spent a lot of time talking about a move towards doing something more meaningful and touched upon many themes. Here are some of the phrases that are worth mentioning
“Web meets world”
“Do stuff that needs to be done”
“Create more value than you capture”
“Pascal’s wager”
“We have to assume that the world is going to go to hell in a handbasket unless we do something about it”
The message once again placed an emphasis on tools and services that make our lives better, not just the next viral Facebook app. Something that many of us have been saying for a while, but Tim wields a bigger stick.
That’s where I think the sciences come in. Science needs to be done. The web needs to be brought to science, and not just by big research labs, or by larger companies, but by forward thinking people who “get it”. It’s why I think the value in scientific web apps lies not in the next social network to foster collaboration, especially when there are so many around, but in projects and efforts that really do something to further science. That could come from open source tools, things like SNPedia, or the kinds of efforts that Cameron and Jean-Claude are pushing.
The question Tim asked was “are we working on the right things?”. That’s a question we all need to ask. I am not saying we are not allowed to have silly fun, and utility can be found in the strangest of places (e.g. Twitter or Friendfeed), but if we believe in something, we can do something about it. We can’t wait for the system to change, and there is the reality of making a living, but some of us are in a position to make a difference and we should. Whether it is by building awareness, or even better, building tools and services that enable the community and others around us, we should do so.
I really think that the tools are not the bottleneck at this point. You're right we just need to do what needs to be done. We have to take the plunge without a guarantee of what the reward system will look like.
The web as platform: We can do more
He spent a lot of time talking about a move towards doing something more meaningful and touched upon many themes. Here are some of the phrases that are worth mentioning
“Web meets world”
“Do stuff that needs to be done”
“Create more value than you capture”
“Pascal’s wager”
“We have to assume that the world is going to go to hell in a handbasket unless we do something about it”
The message once again placed an emphasis on tools and services that make our lives better, not just the next viral Facebook app. Something that many of us have been saying for a while, but Tim wields a bigger stick.
That’s where I think the sciences come in. Science needs to be done. The web needs to be brought to science, and not just by big research labs, or by larger companies, but by forward thinking people who “get it”. It’s why I think the value in scientific web apps lies not in the next social network to foster collaboration, especially when there are so many around, but in projects and efforts that really do something to further science. That could come from open source tools, things like SNPedia, or the kinds of efforts that Cameron and Jean-Claude are pushing.
The question Tim asked was “are we working on the right things?”. That’s a question we all need to ask. I am not saying we are not allowed to have silly fun, and utility can be found in the strangest of places (e.g. Twitter or Friendfeed), but if we believe in something, we can do something about it. We can’t wait for the system to change, and there is the reality of making a living, but some of us are in a position to make a difference and we should. Whether it is by building awareness, or even better, building tools and services that enable the community and others around us, we should do so.