Supernova

What separates "modern" social network systems from "first generation" social networks like Friendster (and, to an extent, systems like LinkedIn)? It's the architecture.

Join us as we explore how current systems "design for social sharing" with Rashmi Sinha, cofounder and CEO for SlideShare. Slideshare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations and documents. SlideShare is growing rapidly (more than 18 million monthly uniques) letting everyone from marketers, conference speakers and academicians share presentations and connect with others. Rashmi has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Brown University and did research on search engines and recommender systems at UC Berkeley. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo and Future of Web Apps. She writes a blog at rashmisinha.com about running a startup.

As part of our special track at Supernova 2009: Real Time Flow, co-hosted by BT, we are engaged in exploration of the shift from a web of static pages to real time streams of interactions. (Last year, our innovative Open Flow track considered the technologies and practices that allow information to move freely between users, websites, and organizations. In the months since then, many of the ideas that were radical then have gone mainstream.)

At Supernova 2009, we’ll address the next step: making use of open data flows in real time. As part of our continuing coverage of this phenomenon, Friday’s Network Age Briefing call will be with Tantek Çelik, who is the moderating the Real Time Flow track at the conference. Join us!

We’re excited to announce a special track at Supernova 2009: Real Time Flow, co-hosted by BT. Join us for a cutting-edge exploration of the shift from a web of static pages to real time streams of interactions.

Last year, our innovative Open Flow track considered the technologies and practices that allow information to move freely between users, websites, and organizations. In the months since then, many of the ideas that were radical then have gone mainstream. At Supernova 2009, we’ll address the next step: making use of open data flows in real time.

On this week's Network Age Briefing call, we'll chat with Marshall Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Content Development at ReadWriteWeb, and also the Lead Writer. He hails from Portland, Oregon, USA. Prior to joining R/WW in Sept 2007, Marshall was Director of Content at SplashCast Media. During 2006 he was Lead Blogger at TechCrunch.

Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Weblogs she writes or has written include Bag and Baggage, Lawgarithms, Between Lawyers, and The Industry Standard. She writes the Dicta column in The American Lawyer magazine on a bi-monthly basis, hosts an audio series at TWiT.tv called this WEEK in LAW, and another one at IT Conversations called Sound Policy. Howell coined the term “blawg” and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law.

danah boyd is a researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She recently completed her PhD in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley.

Dr. boyd’s dissertation “Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics” focused on how American youth use networked publics for sociable purposes. She examined the role that social network sites like MySpace and Facebook play in everyday teen interactions and social relations. She was interested in how mediated environments alter the structural conditions in which teens operate, forcing them to manage complex dynamics like interacting before invisible audiences, managing context collisions, and negotiating the convergence of public and private life. This work was funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of a broader grant on digital youth and informal learning.

At the Berkman Center, danah co-directed the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to work with companies and non-profits to identify potential technical solutions for keeping children safe online. This Task Force was formed by the U.S. Attorneys General and MySpace and is being organized by the Berkman Center.

Dr. boyd received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University and a master’s degree in sociable media from MIT Media Lab. She has worked as an ethnographer and social media researcher for various corporations, including Intel, Tribe.net, Google, and Yahoo! She also created and managed a large online community for V-Day, a non-profit organization working to end violence against women and girls worldwide. She has advised numerous other companies, sits on corporate, education, and non-profit advisory boards, and regularly speaks at industry conferences and events.

danah maintains a blog on social media called Apophenia.

Can we still have “privacy” in the Network Age? How do individuals, as well as services such as Craigslist, Facebook and Twitter, protect themselves and their information online? What can we do about it, if anything? Join us on November 4 to discuss “Privacy and Data Security in the Network Age” with noted expert Samir Jain.

About Samir Jain:

Samir Jain is a partner in the Communications, Privacy, and Internet Law group at WilmerHale, where his practice involves litigation, regulatory work, and counseling on a wide range of cutting-edge e-commerce, privacy, and communications issues. His areas of expertise include online intermediary liability for third-party content, privacy and data security, electronic surveillance, national security and public safety, advertising, online child safety, and regulation of information and telecommunications services. Mr. Jain has been recognized for his exceptional national standing in both “Privacy and Data Security” and “Telecom, Broadcast, and Satellite: Regulatory” in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2007-2009 editions). Mr. Jain has represented members of the online industry such as Amazon, AOL, craigslist, eBay, Google, and Yahoo! in many of the leading cases defining the scope of the immunity afforded to service providers for third-party content by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Mr. Jain speaks and writes regularly about Internet and communications law issues. He also is an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School, where he co-teaches a course on Electronic Commerce Law.

For this week's Supernova Network Age briefing, we'll be speaking with Google's Bradley Horowitz about how business and personal productivity applications are changing in the Network Age. Why types of solutions lend themselves to being either highly networked, or delivered over the network? What types of organizations are embracing web-based applications for their critical infrastructure -- and what are the points of resistance?

About Bradley Horowitz: Bradley oversees product management for Google Apps, including Gmail, Calendar, Google Talk, Google Voice, Google Docs, Blogger and Picasa. Before joining Google, Bradley led Yahoo's advanced development division, which developed new products such as Yahoo! Pipes, and drove the acquisition of products such as Flickr and MyBlogLog. Previously, he was Co-Founder and CTO of Virage, where he oversaw the technical direction of the company from its founding through its IPO and eventual acquisition by Autonomy.

Bradley holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Michigan, and a master's degree from the MIT Media Lab and was pursuing his Ph.D. there when he co-founded Virage.

This week's Supernova Network Age Briefing will feature Scott Blake Harris, General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Energy. This is a chance to ask questions first-hand about topics as far ranging as current "Smart Grid" efforts, how technology is changing our thinking about carbon sequestration and nuclear energy, and how cybersecurity intersects with our country's energy policy.

About our guest: Scott Blake Harris is the General Counsel of the Department of Energy. He was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama in March, and was confirmed by the United States Senate in May, 2009. Mr. Harris has practiced law in Washington D.C. for thirty-three years both in the private sector and in government. Mr. Harris has had extensive litigation, telecommunications and technology law, trade law, administrative law, and national security law experience.

Google Wave is this year’s most anticipated new product. On Thursday, October 15 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET, Google Wave lead developer Lars Rasmussen will join us from Sydney, Australia, for our weekly Supernova Network Age Briefing Call. Is Wave a revolutionary development, or has it been overhyped? You decide — Join the conversation on the web or by phone at (347) 945-6578.

Google has generously agreed to provide our Supernova network with a limited number of Wave priority beta invitations for briefing call participants. To be eligible, join our opt-in list to be notified about future Network Age Briefings.

We are moving from a web of pages and sites to a rich and continuous stream of interactions. Historically, we often thought of the web using a metaphor of “real estate,” with accompanying lexicon of “sites” and “locations.” However, as the Network Age has evolved, we now are beginning to realize that the web has duality, and also has characteristics of a real-time flow as well. With Laura Fitton (@pistachio) and Tantek Çelik (@t).