10:30am

So much of today’s Internet economy revolves around users: the content they create, the communities they form, and the transactions they choose.  Yet few businesses study how people actually interact with the Net and online collaborative tools.  This session will use case studies and research to illuminate user behavior on today’s participatory Internet.

A discussion about how the Internet is governed, and where its future lies.

The startup financing process is changing. Companies today can start anywhere, develop rapidly, and collaborate across multiple locations, all for a fraction of what it used to cost. Angels, venture capitalists, strategic investors, and entrepreneurs all face a new set of choices. This session, moderated by one of the country’s leading professors of entrepreneurship, will look at trends and changes in funding strategies, deal structures, partnerships, and exit options, and will feature experts from the key constituencies at the forefront of these trends.

This special "conference within a conference" will explore the technologies and business practices that allow information to move freely between users, websites, and organizations. It will incorporate social media tools and visual journalism to create a unique interactive experience.

Kick-Off Discussion: The Value of Openness
JP Rangaswami (BT)

Whose Social Graph?
Moderator Tantek Celik (tantek.com), Kevin Marks (Google), Joe Smarr (Plaxo), Dave Morin (Facebook)

All major Internet players claim their platforms are open… yet, they take that to mean different things. In a world where users, content and data flow across many physical and virtual locations, and where monolithic applications are being atomized into widgets, Web services and syndicated information, the openness of interfaces is of crucial importance. What are the real dividing lines between true openness and proprietary lock-in, and which approaches produce the greatest value for all participants (including users)?

Networked Business Models
Umair Haque (BubbleGeneration), Chris Sacca (Investor), Joi Ito (Neoteny)
Traditional business strategy emphasizes scarcity and central control. The Network Age is all about abundance and distributed activity at the edges. Truly networked business models take advantage of openness and collective action to redefine markets. This session will challenge basic assumptions about strategy, and explore the opportunities for massive new value creation in the Network Age.

Bottom-Up Distributed Openness
Can users and developers acting on their on their own build the foundations for industry-wide standards in key areas?

The culmination of the Open Flow track will be an interactive open forum. All participants will have the opportunity to help shape insights and takeaways, which will form the basis of a special website after the conference.

It’s a big Internet out there.  There are significant opportunities build businesses around vertical markets, but only by understanding how to attract users and generate revenue.  Those have always been key challenges for Internet-based services, but how do things change as the Net becomes more open, more participatory, and more complex?  Will the largest portals and social networks absorb most of the value, or will more-focused players be able to thrive? 

Different sectors of the marketing industry continue to debate the drivers of "the new marketing" in the Network Age, using terminology such as transparency, engagement, relationship economy, conversational marketing, new metrics, etc. But, the industry continues to stall in terms of making significant strides in adopting these concepts. The question still remains, "where is the innovation?" We give a voice to the practitioners to discuss their requirements and requests for innovation with key industry pundits.

Massively multiplayer online games offer glimpses of how social interactions and work will develop in the Network Age. What can they teach us? How can businesses and online communities leverage insights from virtual worlds to develop more effective systems and practices?

The explosive growth of broadband and wireless connectivity is changing the landscape for all access, content, and application providers.  Major policy decisions on broadband regulation and spectrum loom.  This track will examine the major opportunities for significant changes in the years ahead.

Does Telecom Have a Future?
Brough Turner (NMS), Greg Luib (FTC), Richard Bennett (Network Architect)
All major telecom companies are moving to broadband and IP.  Must the Internet become more like telephone and cable networks, or must telcos fundamentally adapt their business models? Should the sector-specific rules governing telecom providers disappear, or be strengthened?

Wireless: The Post-Spectrum Age?
Moderator Pierre De Vries, Susan Crawford (Michigan), Ian Ferrell (Microsoft)

The broadcast paradigm of spectrum allocation has held sway for over eighty years.  Do white spaces, open access, and other developments herald the birth of a new era?

Global Perspectives
Jonathan Aronson (USC), Ken Carter (WIK)
The leaders in today’s broadband world, both in deployment and policy innovation, are not in the US…. at least, according to conventional wisdom.  What can we learn from developments elsewhere?

The track concludes with an open discussion among Supernova participants about the best policy and business approaches to catalyze broadband and wireless investment, adoption, and innovation. 

1:00pm

Attendee Roundtables

We open the floor for some of our fantastic attendees to give presentations on their areas of expertise, or other issues they are passionate about. Speakers include:

• Ajit Jaokar
• Jessica Mah
• Tom Patterson
• Susan Crawford