Graphing Social Patterns West Conference Navigates Social Networks' Future
GSP East Will Continue the Conversation in June
Sebastopol, CA--Business and technology issues steered the program at O'Reilly Graphing Social Patterns West, the premier conference exploring the burgeoning social network platforms March 3-4 in San Diego. Program chair Dave McClure designed the conference for developers who build apps and marketers who distribute them, plotting a program that covered business and marketing strategies, as well as strategies for technical and app development. Two days of plenary sessions engaged over 500 business executives and technical developers in discussions about this evolving environment. GSP West also demonstrated how to reach online communities using new and established social networking platforms and applications.
Explaining how he chose these two tracks to help chart the Internet's future, McClure said, "If you're a business leader, social networks appear to be the most remarkable viral method for acquiring new users quickly. Integrating social network connection data into traditional software applications enables astonishing levels and rates of customer acquisition." McClure continued, "If you're a web developer, these are most certainly the best of times. We are experiencing a Geek Renaissance the likes of which the software community has never before seen. This moment offers amazing platform innovation opportunities. In less than a month an independent developer can create and launch an app that acquires a million users."
Building upon the success of this second GSP conference, O'Reilly inaugurates an East Coast version in Washington D.C., June 9-11 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. GSP East (http://conferences.oreilly.com/gspeast/) also has two tracks, one devoted to exploring social networks form a business and marketing perspective, and the other devoted to app development and technical strategy. GSP East expands the previous conference schedule by adding a day of tutorials.
A collaborative event that melded the theoretical and the practical, GSP West included two days of plenary sessions, demonstrations, panels, and keynote presentations. The conference program offered rich and thought provoking discussions from industry experts and evangelists such as:
GSP West's Sponsor Gallery featured the latest offerings from companies in the social networks market, from the well established to the newest challengers. The Sponsor Gallery provided attendees opportunities to network while learning about new products and approaches. Sponsors included Yahoo! Developer Network, Friendster, CollegeNet, Google, IntroNetworks, Podclass, RockYou!, Userplane, Charles River Ventures, Facebook, and SocialMedia.
Participants also made announcements at the conference:
In addition to the two full days of speakers and sessions, the evenings offered events including the AppNite Demo contest (sponsored by Charles River Ventures, Facebook, and SocialMedia). Since GSP West occurred in conjunction with the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (http://conferences.oreilly.com/etech), attendees also socialized at additional evening events such as Ignite ETech, EFF Pioneer Awards, an After Hours Party (sponsored by Walt Disney Internet Group), Werewolf, BoFs, and much more.
GSP West attracted marketers, business executives, technical developers, advertisers, open source programmers, VCs, entrepreneurs, technologists, and hackers interested in profiting from the most powerful social pattern sweeping the Internet. This international crowd immersed themselves in the social networking wave.
For complete information on GSP West, visit: http://conferences.oreilly.com/gspwest
For speaker presentation files, go to: http://en.oreilly.com/gspwest2008/public/schedule/proceedings/
For articles, blogs, photos, video, and other coverage of the event, go to: http://www.oreillynet.com/conferences/blog/gspwest/
If you'd like to stay up to date on information relating to GSP conferences, sign up for the conference newsletter: http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/nl/home#conferences/
Watch select videos from GSP West at: http://gspwest.blip.tv/
For more discussion of the second act of the Internet revolution, read program chair Dave McClure's blog, Master of 500 Hats, at: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/
To read Tim O'Reilly's take on the future, go to the O'Reilly Radar at: http://radar.oreilly.com/
If you have ideas about areas you'd like to see included at a future edition of GSP, send a message to: gsp-ideas@oreilly.com
For information about exhibiting at or sponsoring GSP, contact Yvonne Romaine (707) 827-7198 or yromaine@oreilly.com
If you would like to discuss forming a media or promotional partnership with O'Reilly for an upcoming event, contact Avila Reese at (707) 827-7116 or mediapartners@oreilly.com
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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