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Moderator:
Gordon Crovitz, Columnist and former Publisher, The Wall Street Journal

Will Google still be relevant in 10 years? What lies ahead for technology? Is Wiki the new wave for education?

Moderator Gordon Crovitz launched a discussion on Computing′s Next Playground by asking a panel of technologists to identify areas where technology drives opportunities for growth and progress.

Greg Papadopoulos predicted that the connection between the physical world of atoms and the digital world of patterns is the direction of the new digital age. He described the current shift in technology as a "network revolution — a time we connected everything." Stephen Pawlowski said the changing computing paradigm means more connectivity in your house and benefits to the smart grid but greater challenges to information security. Shane Robinson agreed that innovation is now focused on communication and collaboration, such as YouTube, while past innovations targeted productivity.

"Facebook and YouTube are just the beginning," Yair Landau said. Facebook has empowered people because services are simple and communicating is easy. YouTube allows for mass customized consumption. It is the beginning of a global migration from text to video, Landau said, and it will transform how the world communicates.

Search technology is another opportunity for innovation, some panelists said. "Today you search a sea of information, but tomorrow search will be done for you," Robinson said. He thinks future technology will know user preferences and navigate the sea of information for users. Papadopoulos agreed, saying the next wave of search technology would even interpret the meaning of your question in the context of your location.

Innovative technologies that use crowdsourcing, such as Wikipedia, were also discussed. Crowdsourcing relies on many experts, and Robinson said the predictive crowdsourcing models created by HP are more accurate than normal models. Crovitz demonstrated the ease of using Wikipedia, arranging for the IT staff to create a Wiki entry for the Milken Institute during the panel discussion.

Papadopoulos predicted a dramatic shift to storing data in technological clouds, which may be safer than at home. Pawlowski said digital information can be vulnerable, so one obstacle will be establishing trust that information will be protected in clouds.

The economic downturn presents tremendous opportunities for more innovation, panelists said. As Papadopoulos noted, "Innovation loves a crisis."

Moderator:
Andrew Miller, Co-Founder and President, Internet Real Estate Group LLC, InternetRealEstate.com

Internet innovation is only in the second or third inning, Michael Soenen said, and there is much more to come.

The Internet and mobile applications are alive and well despite the state of the economy, moderator Andrew Miller said. He characterized the crisis as "mostly a bank and financial crisis and not a direct hit on the Internet."

Mike Zapolin agreed, saying Internet advertising revenue will grow by $50 billion, narrowing the gap between the 21 percent of media consumed online and the 7 percent of advertising revenue spent on the Web. Jim Safka said innovation is so hot that now is a best time ever for companies who have capital to invest in the Internet.

Peter Neupert was not as effusive. Although Neupert is willing to concede that the Internet is in the second or third inning of innovation, he wondered how long the innings really are. To illustrate his point, he referenced the evolution of convergence. Neupert said convergence was in its nascency 13 years ago and still isn′t a reality.

Andrew Miller conceded that some innings are longer than others, adding that some industries such as commercial insurance haven't fully harnessed the Internet to expand their business. However, the panelists agreed that the Internet has been an amazing tool to allow individuals to put their businesses on a global platform and to build large-scale Internet businesses with smaller capital outlays.

The role of video was another hot topic. Zapolin discussed the importance of video and the growing role it will play in conveying media, and he praised Google's integration of video into its search results. Safka acknowledged that videos have a higher click rate than text links but cautioned that media distributors have not figured out the user experience in video.

Neupert provided a unique perspective of the role of the Internet in health care. Unlike other industries, health care has been markedly slow to adopt Internet technologies because it's a "cottage industry." He said there is more health information online now — a lot of it good content —but medical professionals complain the content is often on the fringes of reputable medical research.

The panel also turned its attention to the limitations of the Internet. Soenen said the biggest limitation to innovation is the speed of the Internet itself. He attributes the slow development of convergence to the lagging speeds and thinks improvements "will radically alter the rate at which internet innovation occurs." Another limitation is fear, Soenen said, but older people eventually will grow more comfortable with the technology.

The panel was enthusiastic about the opportunities but said companies have to let go of their old ways to succeed. The Internet will displace some traditional business models, but has the potential to help entrepreneurs maximize their potential, the speakers said.

Moderator:
Marcia Stepanek, Founding Editor-in-Chief and President, News and Information, Contribute Media

"Organized minorities are always going to be more powerful than disorganized majorities," panelist Andrew Rasiej said. That makes social media an important path to power.

Because of social media, minority groups and others are represented in a more comprehensive way, panelists said. The Internet generally — and social media specifically — has become a transformative force in how everything in the world is done, including and especially politics.

As the panelists reflected on the use of social media during the 2008 presidential campaign, Jason Calacanis pointed out that Barack Obama was the candidate best -suited to use the medium because of his willingness to interact with and engage all people. Rasiej noted that Obama used the word "we" 10 times more frequently than the other candidates in both the primary and general elections and used the word in a way that resonated with the public.

Mindy Finn suggested that the Republicans lost not because of the Internet per se but because they were perceived as being out of touch. She added that people today are most interested in collaborative and socially engaging platforms online.

The audience was shown two viral videos from the 2008 presidential campaign. Rasiej introduced the term "videocracy," referring to the new wave of individuals creating online videos to convey their unique message to the world. In the next few years, he said, online videos will become a more important medium of communication, even shrinking the space available for pure text.

Scott Goodstein said companies and political campaigns can no longer simply put out a press release and launch ads on radio and television and then assume they are finished. Engagement with people via social media is an essential component of any communications strategy, he said. Goodstein, who worked on the Obama campaign, spent lots time answering questions from individuals and responding to friend requests from Obama supporters on social networking sites.

In addition to large presidential campaigns, social media has the potential to provide a successful platform for other areas. With regards to smaller, local campaigns, the panelists agreed that social media can empower groups that otherwise would be at a disadvantage. Finn said private-sector companies can learn from the experience of successful political campaigns and invest the resources necessary to use social media effectively. Most companies have been slow to adopt social media and actively use online tools, Finn said.

Although social media has become a lucrative venture for many, Rasiej pointed out that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sees his social networking site as a tool to create a new social dynamic, facilitating collaboration and relationships.

Moderator:
Keith Ferrazzi, CEO, Ferrazzi Greenlight

Consumers are consuming a little less conspicuously these days, requiring a change of approach to marketing, according to a panel of experts.

The landscape of doing business has fundamentally changed with recent economic developments, said Keith Ferrazzi of Ferrazza Greenlight and Starbucks′ Michelle Gass. Gass in particular noted a move away from "conspicuous consumption" to the purchase of products based on their value and affordability.

Gass said this requires new approaches from businesses. "You′ve got to be in a position to be nimble and adjust your marketing strategy," she said. As an example of an innovative strategy, Gass and Ferrazzi both cited Starbucks' use of digital channels to advertise free coffee for voters on Election Day.

Frank Luntz of The Word Doctors.com said businesses need to know precisely what customers want and use that information to customize advertising and marketing. He said his consumer research found that, in a difficult economy, "Men want more money, and women want more time." A successful marketing campaign will capitalize on these concepts, he said.

Stephen Cloobeck of Diamond Resorts stressed the importance of combining awareness and use of new media with "old-fashioned" approaches to enhancing a brand. "It′s about customer service," Cloobeck said in describing his company's view of marketing.

Cloobeck said aggressively serving customers redefined the flagging reputation of the company he acquired. His resort managers are instructed to constantly attend to guests' needs, call frequent customers personally to thank them for their loyalty, and acknowledge and remedy customer complaints.

"It′s our mandate worldwide to say we apologize and then fix it as soon as possible," Cloobeck said.

Julie Woods-Moss of BT also discussed the value of human interaction. She described BT′s efforts to use social networking to increase communication within an organization, saying the tactic increased productivity. She said customers also value personal interaction. "We′re actually overlooking the good, old-fashioned contact center," she said.

"At the end of the day, it's really the relationships in your lives that are going to power your growth," Ferrazzi said.

Moderator:
Paul Kedrosky, Senior Fellow, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Social networks have become the hottest innovation on the Internet. Almost daily, new headlines discuss their impact on everything from teenage relationships to political campaigns. At the same time, they have also evolved into a powerful tool for creating and establishing the ties that are essential to developing a solid business. This panel examined exactly how business-based social networks work to deliver value by marketing products, building brands, facilitating customer support, finding new employees and informing investors — all while developing successful models as businesses unto themselves.

Moderator:
Steve Ellis, Worldwide Managing Director, Bain & Company

Increased personalization and perfecting the user experience will be key to increasing the reach of the mobile Web, panelists said.

Mobile media devices are becoming intrinsically linked to one's sense of self, said Len Lauer of Qualcomm, because you "don′t leave home without the mobile device." The devices are a way to bring connectivity to those in rural areas in both the U.S. and abroad. However, as the devices increasingly permeate the market, mobile Internet companies face challenges in privacy and user acquisition and retention.

Manufacturers such as Nokia and Qualcomm are exploring using the mobile Web to expand Internet into developing countries that lack the infrastructure for wired service, including more of the 2.6 billion people who live without a phone.

Mary McDowell discussed Nokia′s Life Tools program that provides Internet access using 35-year-old technology and slower Internet speeds. Life Tools lets individuals in rural India who have GSM coverage access the Internet for educational and agricultural purposes via an easy-to-use graphical user interface. Lauer said similar initiatives can serve more people in developing countries via handsets with a $17 entry price or bring browsing to any home that has a television via a modem and an applications processor.

Qualcomm also is working with the federal government on a broadband initiative to increase access for rural Americans. Greg Skibiski of Sense Networks is excited about bringing people on the grid because it allows companies to track the physical locations of mobile customers and use the information to predict outbreaks of disease, challenges to public safety and other purposes that could improve the quality of life for people in developing countries.

For those with ready access to the wired Internet, what will lure them to the mobile Web and keep them there? In five to 10 years, Lauer said, all devices will be connected to each other via local area networks or even wider networks. Lauer is confident mobile devices will be developed that will allow the convergence of consumer electronics, wireless and computing in one device but cautions against companies developing a cheap notebook computers as the answer.

McDowell agreed that convergence is coming but said the mobile Web is "about the transformation of the Internet, not rendering pages on a tiny screen." She said the mobile Web also should be harnessed to deliver custom content. While the panelists agreed that applications on systems like the iPhone are exciting, some wished for portability between devices.

Privacy is a key issue, given that user information is a major source of data about users and their habits. Skibiski said that individuals should have possession, use and disposal rights to their information and that companies should diligently dispose of an individual′s information after it has been analyzed.

Speaker:
Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Hollywood Costume Designer of Indiana Jones, Thriller and More

Interviewer:
Robert Rosen, Dean, School of Theater, Film and Television, University of California, Los Angeles

When asked by Deborah Nadoolman Landis to think of the word "costume," the audience couldn′t help but associate the word with Halloween.

This is an unfortunate pairing for the Academy Award-nominated costume designer: The gaudiness and extravagance of Halloween have "so little to do with what we (costume designers) actually do." Quoting James Laver, Landis said, "Clothes are never a frivolity: they always mean something."

For Landis, costume design goes beyond the superficial. More than masks, capes and drapes, costumes help create icons, she said. "It's all about the people, people!" Landis said. Though what costume designers do is often considered behind-the-scenes work, it is integral to storytelling in theater, film and television. While production designers create the "where" — a detective's office in The Departed, the high school field in Juno — costume designers create the "who," she said.

Landis took the audience on an anthropological journey using slides depicting "real" people from Namibia to Australia and on-screen characters such as Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat and Diane Keaton's Annie Hall, to demonstrate the way clothing and costumes mark period, locale, occasion and status.

But there′s more to Landis' work than simply finding items to match the time and place that a script identifies: Landis researches her characters to find them in "the arc of (his or her) life." Films, Landis said, require "a huge suspension of disbelief. … You are asked to believe that the people in the movie have had a life before the movie started … and when the movie ends, continue their (lives)." Costumes are the vehicles for creating authentic characters.

Being a successful costume designer often means convincing the audience that you didn't really work at all. Unlike the world of fashion, which draws attention to itself, what costume design does is "help you forget about costumes and help you become totally involved in people′s stories."

As examples, Landis listed several Oscar winners for best actress. To win an Oscar, Landis said, "you had to be ugly in the movie" because "pretty doesn′t win." The most powerful performances came from actresses who portrayed their characters convincingly, becoming "real people" to be believable.

Actresses and actors aren't, however, the only ones who are what they wear, she said. Everyone conveys different things with their clothing and accessories. If we are what we wear, Landis said, then what we wear "is an amalgam of stories."

Moderator:
Barry Libert, Chairman and CEO, Mzinga

Mzinga is in the business of building online employee and customer communities for businesses to give a voice to those who matter most. Its chairman and CEO, Barry Libert, opened a session about creating online social networks for employees and customers by establishing a context for what it means to be a leader.

Libert said today's business leaders have lost their way. Business isn't about the products and services being sold or the dollars and cents that are made. It's about the people receiving the goods and services and the relationships they have with the companies, he said.

He used as an example the former CEO of General Motors, who claimed that customers had it wrong about the quality of GM vehicles. The issue has little to do with quality and everything to do with the failed relationship between the automaker and its customers, Libert said. Profit is not the end; community is the end.

While many business leaders claim to want feedback from their customers, they want to control that feedback heavily, he said. They are afraid of inviting a truly open and frank discussion because that will make them vulnerable. As a result, leaders want to manage feedback in a way that prevents full and honest communication.

But it's not about them. Libert presents online social networks for employees and customers as one solution to this culture of fear. These networks are teaching companies that they have lost their way. "Social networking is cool, but it′s the beginning of an even cooler change," he said. It's about how we think of ourselves as humans.

Libert was joined by an assistant, Matt, who eased the room full of business leaders into the world of online social networks and showed them how easy it is to create a forum for feedback and discussion that would allow the businesses to learn from honest, unfiltered interactions with their employees and customers.

Matt relieved many concerns people had about social networking sites. In fact, many things employers feared the sites would bring into the workplace already exist there. At the same time, business leaders were missing out on a lot of benefits associated with online social networking tools.

The session really was meant to take business leaders out of their comfort zone by inviting a conversation with employees and customers that, however unpleasant it might seem, was in their best interest. In fact, many customers have created their own spaces online to discuss a company′s products or services; the problem is that the company isn't part of the conversation.

Moderator:
Peter Bart, Vice President, Editor-in-Chief, Variety

America's leading export industry is facing up to the realities of the recession and taking action to ensure its continuing efficacy at providing consumers with the high quality content they demand. Peter Chernin, President and CEO of News Corporation, sees consumers as "staggeringly smart and often way ahead of the studios in adapting and adopting new approaches to consuming content." They will not be legislated or slow their migration to digital content.

In many ways, industry challenges remain the same: create good content, develop new opportunities for consumption and maximize monetization. The new media and mobile applications complement existing capabilities, though the industry is still in the process of sorting out the monetization. A self-proclaimed "old television guy," Leslie Moonves of CBS sees broadcast remaining an integral part of the media portfolio, but without the huge margins it once enjoyed. Television is well-suited for "American Idol" and the Super Bowl, whereas Internet services like Hulu can draw audiences with reruns.

The executives' largest concern is with market structure. Moonves concurred with News Corporation's Jon Miller that major productions are bigger than ever and small start-up productions are doing well, since they are so inexpensive to produce and can afford to appeal to niche audiences. The challenge is the middle-market segment, where studios were accustomed to good, steady returns over the years.

While digital migration offers great promise to new talent and big-name superstars, the middle-market segment is filled with established actors and writers who have long been able to make a good living but are now bearing the brunt of changing market conditions. This market segment was at the center of the recent labor strife with no readily apparent solution at hand. While Chernin admits that management perhaps got off on the wrong foot and didn't act quick enough to dispel the us-vs.-them rhetoric in recent labor negotiations, the industry's future depends on bringing all parties together to solve this middle-segment issue.

The panel pointed to Hulu's success as an excellent example of studio work in this area. Miller relayed how Hulu reflects viewer preference for high-quality products and their acceptance of long-form works with advertising over the Internet. Well-suited for television reruns, the Hulu advertising approach is one that agencies know how to do well and offers targeted marketing opportunities. While Moonves noted that targeted marketing efforts can miss portions of the audience, it points to a need within the industry for more insightful means to measure digital media consumption.

Producer Brian Grazer is confident the theater experience will remain strong, while noting revenue streams matter. As Moonves remarked, everyone is trying to keep their heads above water with revenue while figuring out how to monetize the new digital content and outlets, especially mobile applications. "It is about creating quality content that tells a story, whether it is a two-minute clip or a two-hour movie. The challenge is getting enough revenue to continue high quality content."

Miller sees the enterprise-level strategy as a major challenge, while Grazer is concerned about fear within the business that drives management to prognosticate what people like. "As long as it doesn't compromise artistic integrity, the media should be flexible." As this panel revealed, Hollywood is focused on attaining the flexibility to succeed at providing quality content for whatever media the consumer desires.