Marcia Kadanoff at WidgetWebExpo

Marcia Kadanoff from Musestorm stepped in at short notice and gave a great talk on The Top Ten Widget Mistakes

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Fraser Kelton at WidgetWebExpo

Fraser brought two great things to WidgetWebExpo last week. Firstly he came and talked about constructing a successful widget. Secondly, his company, Adaptive Blue, threw the New York Firefox 3 launch party, which we attended and which was great fun. Fraser has blogged his talk:

BlueBlog: Widgets Promoting Widgets

That was the title of my session last week at the Widget Web Expo. Lousy title, good session. The session started by discussing the fallacy of the “widget promise” - the notion that “if you build it, they will come.”

Widgets have been sold as a way to achieve broad distribution easily. The sale has been that slapping a “copy me” button onto the widget = viral distribution. Unfortunately this simplistic equation neglects important other factors that influence the ability of a widget to promote itself, encouraging replication and duplication across the web.

Sexy Widget: Highlights from WidgetWebExpo

Just spotted Sexy Widget's roundup from WidgetWebExpo. Thanks so much for this and it was great to meet you too, Lawrence.

Sexy Widget: Highlights from WidgetWebExpo.

Highlights from WidgetWebExpo

Here are my highlights from WidgetWebExpo from earlier this week:

    * Debating the importance / likelihood of data portability with Chris Saad and Khris Loux
    * Debating hub & spoke with Khris Loux
    * Clearspring CEO Hooman Radfar's "History of the World of Widgets" keynote - presentation here.
    * Hearing about Nabbr over beers from fired up CTO Bill Cromie
    * Enjoying the sweet (but accurate) irony of my friend Carnet Williams of the self promotion tool SproutBuilder describing Web 3.0 as the era of self promotion
    * Hearing Fred Wilson talk live and in person about a future of widgets that is in the river and out of the sidebar
    * Hearing Fred Wilson explain the case against social graph portability - that each community is different, and to get real value you need to take the time to build the appropriate network for the community
    * Meeting Ivan Pope
    * Hitting some very cool New York bars: Sweet and Vicious and Max Fish, where our group had three separate pizza deliveries
    * Seeing Jonathan Mendez of Ramp Digital present the results of a very cool widget ad campaign run by Dockers
    * The fact that there was someone there from CDC there learning about how to virally spread information to contain diseases!  Awesome!
    * Catching up with SEO to widget crossover guru Patrick Sexton
    * Talking to numerous fired up entrepreneurs about the cool shit they are working on - like WidgetLocker, AllHipHop, AmnestyWidgets, and more.

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June 19, 2008 | Permalink

Michael Leis at WidgetWebExpo

Michael was asked to give the agency perspective and gave us an excellent insight into how he sees the widget and new media world from his perspective. Also, Michael blogged WidgetWebExpo brilliantly - if you want a blow by blow (or speaker by speaker) account of how the event went, you can read his blog.

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Michael Leis | Vice President, Strategic Services

Emerge Digital (formerly Publishing Dynamics) 
www.emergedgtl.com
http://www.newmediabuzz.com

Scott Rafer at WidgetWebExpo

Scott looking at advertising in widgets

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First speakers for WidgetWebExpo

Really happy to announce a first bunch of speakers for WidgetWebExpo in New York. I'm chasing down my favourite widget themes here, with some great speakers. This stuff is important - things are moving very fast in the widgetsphere - I think these speakers will bring some clarity and some questions to the mix. The conversation continues with more to come over the next few weeks.
You can book now at the WWE site as a discounted early bird.

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.
Chris Cunningham: Founder, CEO Appsavvy

The value of open social networks for widgets
Everybody is in favour of open social networks where widgetized content can roam freely from one place to the next - but not everyone agrees on what the definition of open social networks is. This session will take a look at the myths and reality of social networks and ask what can be done now and what do we have to do next to achieve openness - if that is indeed a good idea.
Marc Canter: Founder, CEO Broadbandmechanics

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.
David Cushman: Digital Development Director, Bauer Consumer Media

Widgets promoting widgets
Much like web pages, widgets are amenable to quality implementation. Tweaks to user-interface design, installation flow and layout can increase the cross promotion and adoption of your widget. This session will look at how to perfect your widget to make it go further, faster.
Fraser Kelton: Director of Business Development, AdaptiveBlue

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.
Chad Catacchio: gisplanning

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?
Fergus Burns: CEO, Nooked

Widgets as Adverts: how do we go from here to there?
The intense popularity of widgets, gadgets, Facebook applications and their kin has advertisers and publishers eager to get on board. But before you invest in a widgetized advertising campaign, there are a number of strategic and technical factors to consider. There are also important guidelines to follow to ensure you get the most from your investment.
Scott Rafer: Lookery

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.
Ivan Pope: CEO and founder, Snipperoo

Tracking widgets in the wild
Once a widget is built and released into the world, it becomes a migratory animal, roaming across a variety of social networks, blogs, personal start pages and out onto the desktop and the mobile space. Is it possible to track widgets wherever they go and if so, what exactly are we tracking?
Linda Abraham: Comscore, WidgetMetrix

Exploring the Web and Desktop Widget Dichotomy
There is a chasm between web and desktop widgets from both a technical and marketing perspective.  How is it possible to bridge these distinct widget worlds using cross-platform technologies - with a demo of "iTunes for widgets"
Danny Espinoza: Amnesty Hypercube

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?
Stowe Boyd: /Messengers

How we built a widget that can really interact with the users
This session looks at how a company with an online product went about designing, commissioning and building their own widgets. What were the issues, the desires, the problems and the solutions. And did it work?
Chris Thorpe, Michael Birch: MindCandy

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.
Patrick Sexton: SEOish