Jason Austin's Blog Life and times of a PHP Developer in Raleigh, NC

Futureweb2010 Day 1

As is tradition, I will be blogging about my experience at the Futureweb2010 conference which is held here in Raleigh.

First off, Futureweb is a "lite" version of the real conference, so we don't get to hear all the normal talks, but we get to be present for the keynotes and a few other really interesting interview-style sessions.  Here's what the first day of Futureweb2010 was like.

First off, I had no idea how big this conference (www2010) really was.  It is a global conference with over 48 countries represented.  Last year it was in Spain.  Go Raleigh!  Way to land one of those big, tech conferences!

This was my first experience in the new Raleigh Convention Center as well.  It is really a very nice venue.  Large, airy spaces with lots of natural light.  A great place to hold such a prestigious conference.  I was truly impressed by the venue.

The conference started with a keynote from Vint Cerf, who is one of the fathers of the internet.  After being introduced by someone, who was introduced by someone else, who was introduced by yet another person, he finally hopped (although almost fell) on stage and the show started.  His keynote was mostly focused on the challenges that the next generation of the internet will bring.  Security, routing, infrastructure.  Lots of things that, as a developer, I need, but don't really care about.  It was an interesting talk though.

The next was a panel on the openness of government and the sharing of data.  It was a panel with Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the internet) and a few other folks representing the UK government, US government and the US Archives.  This is a topic that hits near and dear to my heart, as I work in state government.  The focus was on making government more transparent by providing access to data that once was locked away in small, dark places.  I found it incredibly interesting and inspiring.  I immediately made the following tweet:

...which I plan on trying to make happen here at state.

The afternoon sessions were additional interviews with Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf.  Both guys are very good speakers and extremely interesting (I mean, Vint Cerf just knows Al Gore and Bill Clinton.  Who does that?  Crazy...)  Both of them are so far above the rest of us in their theory and understanding of the internet that it is intimidating.  Crazy smart dudes.

A slight not to those who are organizing.  Hour and a half sessions are way way way too long.  In my opinion, one hour should be the max session time with 45 minutes being ideal.  Those marathon sessions wore me out and I thought they could have been condensed with the same information conveyed.

Anyway, that's it for day one.  I'll be around for the rest of the week so if you are attending, find me and say hello.