As a newcomer to the West Coast, I felt I should start checking out the local technology conference scene, so I stopped by the Massive Technology Show in Vancouver this week. The focus of this conference and tradeshow was "Technology for Business" and the target audience was more of the entrepreneur and business owner crowd than the developer crowd that go to many of the tech events that I tend to find myself at. However, since I was interested in exploring the local technology scene, and being a developer who is also both an entrepreneur and a business owner, I set out with the attitude that discovering one new thing would make the day worth my while.
To be quite honest, the show was not in fact "massive" as in the scale of a Las Vegas COMDEX event from years gone by, however, I did find that it rivaled both the size and quality of most any other similarly-focused event that I have attended in places like Toronto. The show did not have a particular mobility or location technology focus and Microsoft had no visible presence there, never mind any significant sign of Windows Mobile or Virtual Earth. Even so, I still left the event with the feeling that it was in fact worth my while to venture out to the ocean liner shaped Vancouver Convention Center in the port of Vancouver where the event was held.
In terms of mobility and location-relevant content, I actually found the keynote address to be the most interesting element of the event. The conference portion of the show was kicked off by the executive producer of the Massive Technology Show, Lindsay Smith. She introduced the keynote presenter Leonard Brody as a Canadian Author and Visionary. As Leonard apologized to the audience about his habit of pacing while he talks, I did my best to snap a shot of him with the camera. I found myself thinking that something about him reminded me of Robert Downey Jr . After he got talking for a while, I found his presentation very thought-provoking and I also noticed that, near the end of his presentation, a flurry of camera flashes started to come from the audience. Normally, the flashes go off at the beginning of a keynote as people try to get a picture of an industry leader or speaker they recognize. I must admit I hadn’t heard of Leonard Brody before this event, but if his presentation is any indication I expect to hear more from him in the future.
Brody’s three main topics in his presentation were Canada, Media and Technology and his spin on the three created a compelling argument that the next wave of change is going to be all about mobility and presence. Brody argues that, even though technology in just the last decade has been behind some of the greatest social change in our history, we are still at the kindergarten stage of where we are ultimately heading with all of this.
I am a long-time fan of Neil Stephenson’s novel "Snow Crash" which has proven to be a very influential piece of fiction. Concepts from this novel often get quoted by industry influencers like Jay Allard, who apparently made Snow Crash required reading for his team as he headed up the Xbox 360 development effort. Leonard Brody is clearly a fan of this science fiction classic as well and he referred to it numerous times throughout his presentation. His presentation wrapped up with a prediction of a "Gargoyle Culture", both this prophecy and his latest business venture NowPublic.com appear to be based directly on one of the core themes from the futuristic world as described in Stephenson’s book.
The basic premise of a gargoyle in Snow Crash, for those of you who haven’t read it, is that in the information society of the future people will get paid for uploading data that they collect around them. In the story, the term gargoyle is used to describe a particular type of individual who takes the profession of data collection very seriously, so seriously that he fits his body with all the latest in sensor gear for gathering sound, video etc. Once covered with all this heavy gear, not only does the individual visually resemble a gargoyle, but it is advantageous for him to perch, like a gargoyle, someplace high above what is going on to observe and collect intelligence data that will be uploaded to the network.
Brody’s new venture is based on a concept of citizen journalism where everyday individuals use the cameras in their mobile phones to collect the news around them and upload it to the internet for others to consume, much like the characters in Snow Crash do. It doesn’t appear that NowPublic has the micro-payment and billing aspects of the idea online yet, however, if you are familiar with how popular Google’s Adsense program of sharing ad revenue with web site publishers has become, you can quickly appreciate how even more compelling it will be for people to upload information that they collect around them if they were paid each time the content they contributed was used.
While at the show, I also got pulled in by one of the guys manning a booth for IStockphoto. He spotted my camera and started talking to me about how casual photographers could upload images to an online stock photo library and in turn receive micro-payments every time a customer purchased one of the images, not at all unlike the way many of us currently sell our software on sites run by companies like Handango or Motricity. This company describes itself as the "pre-eminent collection of member-generated royalty-free images".
For me the "massive" "one important thing" that I got out of attending this event was the "ah-ha" moment of groking how mobile devices, location, online micro-payments and user communities are indeed coming together in ways that will change how people interact, work and play together in cyberspace. The share in the wealth aspect of community contributions is definitely worth considering as you work on that next killer mobile application, game or location-based solution.