Discussion of intellectual property protection for Web 2.0 projects.

The B2B sector is a small and unique segment of the web that is rife with its own idiosyncratic needs and requirements. This BOF is intended to bring together those who are dealing with these unique characteristics of the web in the B2B space vis-a-vis the B2C, C2C or P2P worlds and provide an opportunity for attendees to share "Wins and Losses" in implementing Web 2.0 strategies and Vertical Search in this sector. As a leading Vertical Search Engine in the "engineering" segment of the B2B sector GlobalSpec brings both hands-on experience and a perspective that would be applicable to other segments of our B2B sector.

The term "Web 2.0" was coined in 2004 by O'Reilly Media and MediaLive International as a name for a series of web development conferences. Afterwards, the concept of Web 2.0 resonated with industry leaders and watchers and it quickly started to evolve into a series of ideas and strategies for more effectively designing next generation Web sites. To this day, there is a huge amount of disagreement about what Web 2.0 really means and whether the value it offers to businesses really justifies the hype around it.

In more simplistic terms, Web 2.0 is basically the blueprint for a new web development paradigm where:

The web is no longer a read-only media. Everyone, including visitors, is now encouraged to contribute (read-write)

Assembling content and features from popular web sites and applications provides a more inclusive experience

Lightweight business models and a new generation of development platforms allow for software to be delivered as a continually-updated service

Social networking and new types of targeted advertising tools make it possible to generate customers at a fraction of the cost prior to Web 2.0

Ivaylo Lenkov will discuss the adoption of web 2.0 technologies in the small business. He will start with the core principles of Web 2.0 and then will discuss which one of them are applicable for the small business. Few successful examples will be presented as well as some pitfalls. Ivaylo will also outline the main factors that should drive the adoption in Web 2.0 technologies as well as the timing for this adoption.

Andre Charland, CEO of Nitobi, and Ryan Stewart, ZDNet Blogger and Flex Guru, will explore different methods of measuring the business value of rich internet applications. From benefits, to costs, to pitfalls and choosing a technology platform. The goal is to get members of this community together to answer the question: "What will rich internet applications do to help my business?". For those of us who get it's a no brainer, but how do we explain to others and in particular the various stakeholders in development projects. We will examine techniques in UI design, usability testing, user interface patterns, rapid prototyping and development strategies. From there we'll walk through various aspects of risk in RIA, cost containment, benefits analysis and come up with framework for evaluating the effectiveness of a given RIA deployment. We'll then look a various factors that will affect the technology platform decision of Ajax vs. Flash/Flex vs. WPF/E vs ???. Everyone should come away with a better understanding of how RIAs can drive better business results if not a solid framework for measuring the benefits.

The discussion is devoted to the architectural aspects of utilizing emergent structures in software solutions for the benefit of enterprises.

Apollo is the future of desktop applications. There's no better or easier way to write engaging, immersive web applications than with Flex, and now that power is available, with important extensions, to desktop developers.

Java is the de facto language of business. Some new languages are easier and faster for some cases, but Java is very good at what it does. More than that, there are a ton of libraries out there that solve a lot of problems or integrate important technologies already.

Artemis is a framework built to serve the community of developers that want to bring these two technologies together to build the next generation desktop applications that blur the line between the web and the desktop.

Come talk about Artemis. Question, Propose, Critique, and learn how to be a part of the community.

This session is open to all, but focused on entrepreneurs that are designing, developing, or introducing new products. It will provide a venue for demonstrating, discussing, and critiquing new products and product concepts. It will also provide an opportunity for feedback, networking and to connect with potential partners or discuss other opportunities.

In this Birds of a Feather, I'd like to discuss uses of RSS above and beyond typical news story dissemination. We have experience with using RSS as a primary data advertisement technology for military command and control systems. As such, it is important for us to understand/influence best practices for such things as:

• Security support
• Conditional data updates
• Geo-spatial and time representation (geoRSS)
• RSS to DB/Web service mapping tools

I'd like to openly discuss what we and others have done in these areas and how to best converge on approaches for wider acceptance by the RSS community.

People like using banks. They put their money in, take it out or transfer it when they choose. They love increased on-line banking services, too, which means even more on-demand convenience and control.

Monetary banks provide valuable services to people. They rent their customers' deposited funds, and pay rental fees in interest to customers. They provide a critical component to a very complex web of communications involved in our everyday transactions.

Ask anybody with money deposited in a bank who owns that money and they will tell you with absolute confidence that they do. The money is in the bank but the customer perceives that he or she has outright possession and control.

Now, ask that same person - just between them and the Internet companies - who owns their medical information, or their financial information, or information about their purchasing habits, etc. You'll receive an entirely different answer, won't you?

Today's Internet companies disclose how they handle people's information, but provide very little on-demand control to the actual information owners and producers.

Imagine a world without monetary banking. Now, imagine a world with information banking.

When people are empowered with more sharing control over the information they own or produce, will they be motivated to share more information, better quality information, and more traceable information with others? What are we missing without information banking?

Let’s explore and discuss ways and means for providing people with new choices for banking their information like they bank their money.

Nearly every man, woman, and child in the world plays casual games in a social context. With worldwide Internet penetration rates steadily increasing, it’s no wonder that the online version of this market is soaring. Casual gaming industry projections estimate a billion players and $10 billion in revenue within the next five years – and that’s only the beginning. As the industry increasingly reflects the inherent social elements of this most natural and universally popular form of entertainment, online social casual gaming will become a dominant platform for online social networking.

Led by Mathieu Nouzareth, co-founder and president of worldwide casual gaming giant Boonty, this session will seek to explore just how quickly and powerfully social casual games will become the dominant Web 2.0 form of entertainment. The panel will review social and human nature aspects characteristic of casual games. We will discuss how our seemingly innate interest in this form of entertainment continues its rapid online migration courtesy of applications that include social and community features, personalization, user-generated content, and virtual worlds. Additionally, the panel will explore business implications of social casual gaming, including the multi-billion dollar advertising and micro-transaction potential of this emerging industry.

There's been talk about diversity in the Web 2.0 sphere lately. The talk is going to increase. Diversity has the sense of being a "buzzword" or even that of being a problem for Web 2.0 businesses, Web 2.0 conferences, and even technology-related careers in general. Perhaps it's time to add another perspective to the mix. In this session, we will converse about what diversity and inclusion mean, and what they look like. We'll also get down to the business of diversity and inclusion, working together to describe the business case. Special attention will be paid to the concerns of the information systems and technology sides of the business. Why should You care about it? But just as crucial, what can You begin to do about it. Participants will leave with practical and intelligent ideas for their day to day work, as well as resources to make the next steps with their organizations. ProGroup is one of the leaders in building cultures that work and we’re committed to the business case for diversity and keeping things friendly, clear, and sensible.

RSS is becoming more widespread, and the de-facto standard for news-style delivery. In this BOF session, attendees will discuss how they'd like to see RSS and related technologies evolve, what the current limitations are, and who is doing the most interesting work and research in the field.

Ok, admit it, you want to organize that email inbox, desktop folders, and your bookmark list. But, assuming you can figure out how to do it without a computer science degree, who has the time to? And then, who has the patience to keep it organized. A recent survey shows that after using organizers and personal information management (PIM) applications for over 6 months, 50% of users abandoned them, and only 15% said that the software really helped them become more efficient. The Internet has transformed the way we work and live in the past ten years. The way that we use email and the Web today is almost unrecognizable when compared to the early days. But Web browsers, email software and PIM tools have changed little since then.

We felt it was time to take a fresh look at what user's needs are today and rethink how these tools should be designed to meet those needs. NOAH defines a new class of data management tools. It takes a different approach to organizing and managing information that is both Internet centric and very intuitive. We’ve designed NOAH with new, innovative features that will make it valuable to both the casual user and the power user. Pre-made, flexible templates allow you to filter and arrange the data your way, our way, or both! The user interface is logical and easy to use. The functions are right where you can easily find them – just click, drag, drop, and you’re done. NOAH Beta-2 is now available as a free download. In this presentation we'll provide an overview of it's full suite of functionality that should make it immediately useful and clearly illustrates the power of our design philosophy.

A BOF for meeting fellow EC2 current and future enthusiasts.

This session outlines and compares different architectures for implementing data cache on client side in AJAX applications. This is new topic, which is very hot. AJAX moves web world a step closer to the desktop productivity, but there still is the gap. This topic discusses different approaches to minimize this gap.

Legislators want to shut out social networking sites from schools and libaries. Teachers want cell phones turned off. Parents want to keep their kids safe and on task. HOw do Web 2.0 technologies fit into school and library networks? How are students using Web 2.0 applications today to create, share and learn? What can schools do to encourage, enhance, enable it? What are the mine fields and what are the solutions?

Amazon S3 is storage for the Internet. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers, enterprises and start-ups.

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers.

This BOF will be hosted by Amazon Web Services for developers, enterprises and start-ups that are building applications on top of Amazon S3.