WidgetWebExpo

I’ve just put the conference agenda up here and it’s looking great. Of course, it will probably change a bit over the next few weeks, but the basic ideas are all there. I’ve tried to cover both practical and theoretical, technical and commercial aspects, with a few wildcards thrown in. My approach is to keep a good number of slots open for as long as possible, because I know great ideas and speakers will suddenly appear from nowhere. That said, I’ve got a lot of excellent speakers signed up already and will be publishing the first draft in the next few days. If you are one of those excellent speakers, or you have a great idea for a missing session, email speakers@widgetwebexpo.com

I think all my sessions are great – but here are a few that I’m particularly looking forward to. What do you think – comments below.

WidgetWebExpo

Show us the money!

One of the key questions at any widget event is where the revenue streams are and whether the widgetsphere is a real business or a passing fad. This session will confront this question head on and give an overview of the many potential and existing revenue streams available to widget owners and developers.

Media Transformative

The power of the network changes the traditional media model through two key disruptions. First it disrupts how, and by whom, content is created. Second it disrupts how, and by whom content is distributed. Together these offer an opportunity for the traditional chasm between advertising and content to close. This session will consider how ‘media’ companies can reform themselves to change both what they do and the way they go about it to deliver products and services which are a better fit with the inhabitants of the networked world.

Are widget standards an oxymoron

Do we need widget standards, and if so, who is best positioned to define and deliver them? This session will look at the candidates for standardization and suggest approaches that may help the widget industry sort out some of its intrinsic problems.
This session is presented in co-ordination with the ‘Widget Standards Birds of a Feather‘ meeting that will take place during the conference.

ecommerce in widgets

The dream of online sellers is a widget that can take their shopping interface right into the heart of the social networks. How realistic is this dream and what is available now for sellers who want to widgetize?

Social Meaning In A Fragmented World: Can We Come Together In A Web That’s Exploding?

As we move further apart, we come closer together. Can we make sense of the paradox that a fragmenting web means that we are in fact clustering in ever tighter circles? Is it indeed a paradox, or is it an inevitable outcome of our taking control of the web. And how are widgets being used to carry our communications from one cluster to the next?

Doing SEO with widgets

It is often claimed that widgets could offer a powerful vehicle for link building. But is this true and if so, what are the issues that constructing a campaign around SEO in widgets brings to the surface.

Towards a long term widget strategy

Most widget campaigns to date have been of the ‘build it up, send it out, see if it flies’ variety. But what would a long term widget strategy look like, what issues need to be managed if widgets are to become a core part of marketing campaigns – campaigns that can last decades rather than weeks.
(the last one is me riding my hobby horse!)

Will Price has left VC Hummer Winblad to head up Widgetbox. Techcrunch covers the story and gets a personal piece from Will on why he left VCland to join this widget startup:

Hummer Winblad Partner Will Price Resigns To Head WidgetBox

The best markets and the best companies ride the tide of history. Widgets are such a market.

The Web’s tide is open, distributed, standard, user-defined, and, in many ways, the most powerful force of the modern era. Widgets are not a fad, or web 2.0-hype, but fundamentally they are the unit by which users are assembling and defining their web experience.

Widgets are portable applications that are user-defined, user-assembled, and consumed independent of the source of the underlying content, commerce, and application functionality. The combination of user-control and decentralized interaction to important services represents an important paradigm shift in how users discover, select, and consume the best of the web.

In Nov 2007, Comscore reported that 650m global uniques, or 65% of the web universe, interacted with a widget. The growth in widget adoption and social media speaks to users’ unmet needs and frustrations with traditional web models. Today, brands, developers, media companies, and established Internet players are racing to understand the forces driving user behavior and the power of a more componentized and distributed web. While widget penetration is at 65% of Internet users and growing, spend in the widget category in 2007 was less than $20m, or 0.1% of the total online ad spend
market.

The 650x differential between spend and the record growth in user adoption is very powerful to consider. Users are always ahead of the market, as evidenced by the systemic under-allocation of ad dollars on-line; 21% of media consumption is on-line vs. 7% of ad spend. However, this 3:1 imbalance is steadily eroding and the widget market will prove to be no different and no less transformative. Traditional portal models that aggregate users and resell that aggregation are fundamentally at odds with the emerging paradigm of user and community defined experience and distributed consumption.

Marketers need to fish where the fish are, however, in an early market there are often more questions than answers. While widgets are enjoying end-user success, the commercial relevance of widgets remains unclear to many. Are widgets a new marketing channel? If so, are they effective? How do you build them, buy them, track them? What is the unit of value; an impression, an install, an engagement…? What type of ecosystem will form around the phenomena? In order to move beyond fad status, an economic model for the widget ecosystem needs to be better developed and measurable value delivered to both end-users and marketers.

From Justin Kirby – excellent coverage of speakers and delegates.

YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.

Widgety Goodness crammed a lot into a day. All the feedback we’ve had so far has been positive. The speakers were great, the sponsors were great, the participants were great and the venue was great.
We’re already working on next year’s event – and on taking it to the US next summer. More on this and much more widgety feedback in the coming weeks.
Thanks to everyone who made this such an excellent day.
More photos on Flickr

He was busy with his wife bringing Jake into the world. I had told him the baby would never come a week early, but what do I know.
Widgety Congratulations to Jon and Jane and Jake