Written on October 9, 2008 – 1:23 pm David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
Kevin Rose kicked off the Future of Web Apps Conference in London this morning, on the topic “The Future of News”. He started out by asking several broad ‘unanswered questions’, which he went on to detail in his keynote.
How do we create an experience YOU enjoy?
How can it get better with your participation?
How can we empower people to share information with people that want that information?
How can we improve the conversation?
Kevin described the gap he wanted Digg to fill as being placed between the filters of people you know, and an unfiltered mass audience. This gap, said Rose, would be filled by Digg in future with its recommendation engine, providing an intersection of your news, and news from ‘diggers like you’.
Digg’s traffic has grown by over 40% since July with the recommendation engine being the fuel for this, and they now plan to open up their taxonomy to allow dynamic grouping - the aim with this is to promote conversation amongst similar users.
Thus, a group can ‘reject’ a spammer or someone who is interrupting, and include those who make valuable contributions. In this way, an individual can ’show their impact’ to other users - as you Digg, it shows you the number of people like you who, in a dynamic group, you are sharing this with, or the number whom you are ‘denying’ seeing the story if you are ‘burying’ things you don’t think deserve an airing. Nice tool - why would you want to disappoint 3,421 people like yourself?
Digg also want to be a conduit to other places, like Twitter, Facebook etcetera. They are also developing and extending the recommendation API and tools for publishers. My immediate thought was that the publishers might welcome this, but it would depend who was branding (or monetising) the end delivery to the consumer.
Responding to questions at the end of his presentation, Rose revealed that Digg has plans to develop internationally, with Rose saying this will be a big initiative next year. One big reason for taking their last round of funding was expanding internationally to take on the local ‘Digg clones’ in the likes of Germany and Spain.”We’ll be moving servers overseas, and by Q4 2009, we will be addressing international markets.”
So watch out, looks like the Diggers will be the future of news. So, please Digg this story…
I hope you like that post!
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Sun, promoting their excellent free Startup Essentials programme, gave Tactile a stand in the Expo Space - Start Up Community, a delegate pass, an expo pass and a listing on the FOWA site. Not content with this generosity, they also awarded a runner-up prize to ‘Shopping without searching’ startup Veedow, who win space on the Sun Lounge to demo their new version to be launched at Future of Web Apps. (Veedow are hiring, by the way.)
Next week, Sun are running a competition to win full conference tickets worth £495 to Future of Web Apps, and also are offering startups who join Startup Essentials, and use the ref code (sssch) FOWA08DSC, a code for 15% off FOWA Conference passes and free EXPO pass tickets, so keep an eye on their blog.
The line-up at FOWA’08 includes Jason Calcanis, Kevin Rose, Kathy Sierra, Tim Bray, Blaine Cook and David Recordon, and FOWA Expo is a great opportunity to see what’s new, and what’s going to be next in the web. Our friends from Diggnation, who presented their show live from the Next Web Conference 2008 in Amsterdam back in April will also be presenting a live Diggnation show from FOWA - always an event to look forward to.
Written on September 7, 2008 – 1:24 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
So far, I haven’t reported about the whole Nano buzz. Kevin Rose’s guesses, the sneering reactions from the blogosphere, the “Let’s Rock” invitation from Apple and the leaked photos: it’s all one big joke to me. And although a lot of Apple fanboys seem to think about it as matter of life and death, there are actually some who seem to agree with me. Like Lonnie Lazar from Cult of Mac. He created a Keynote bingo card to keep all the attendees at the Yerba Buena Center entertained. Cool move! After all, it was a success with Leah Culver at Supernova. So here’s my plan of action.
Let’s vote Lazar’s post to Digg’s frontpage (click) to get it under the attention of all the fanboys out there.
Let one of these fanboys create an bingo app (that actually generates different cards)
Install this thing en masse, and start touching away during the Stevenote.
Here’s the iPhone app Stevenote Bingo mock-up
It took me way too long to design this, but hey, I gotta give you a good idea of the app I have in my mind.
Ok, so the phrases are displayed as phone keys. Click one and it transforms into a light-blue button. If you want to join a world-wide competition, type in your username and click “join”. The app can be used for every Stevenote to come, but this obviously is the one for the “Let’s Rock” edition. If you and your friends are bored, you can always choose the first iPhone keynote and watch it on the Apple website. After the click you can see what happens when you have bingo (nothing much actually). (more…)
Written on September 1, 2008 – 5:00 pm David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
September is suddenly here, and I, for one, have been looking forward in my diary to see what key events are taking place that I should attend - and The Future of Web Apps Expo, in London, October 8-10, certainly looks like a must.
The line-up of speakers includes Jason Calcanis, Kevin Rose, Kathy Sierra, Tim Bray, Blaine Cook and David Recordon, and FOWA Expo is a great opportunity to see what’s new, and what’s going to be next in the web. Our friends from Diggnation, who presented their show live from the Next Web Conference 2008 in Amsterdam back in April will also be presenting a live Diggnation show from FOWA - always an event to look forward to.
UK Startups: Win a stand at FOWA ‘08 with Sun
As I was checking out this show’s details today, I got a tweet from Stewart Townsend of Sun Microsystems - he’s just announced a competition for UK startups to win an exhibition package worth £2500 with a stand in the Expo Space - Start Up Community, a delegate pass, an expo pass and a listing on the FOWA site. Nice.
Even if you’re not a winner in the competition, the Sun Startup Essentials programme has some really nice features, such as technical support, special discounts on Sun hardware, PR opportunities, invitations to special networking events, special offers, and introductions to VCs/Angel Funds. The eleigibility is fairly flexible too - if you’re a UK business trading for less than six years, and have fewer than 150 employees - you’re a startup. Given all this comes at no cost, it’s certainly worth taking a closer look.
All you need to do to have the chance to win the free FOWA Expo Stand & Delegate Package (sorry, eleigible only if you are a UK startup) is to join the Sun Startup Essential Programme (and use the tracking code FOWA08) and do it soon - the draw for this great prize will take place on the 22nd of September, with the winner announced the very next day - and of course, we’ll keep you informed here at The Next Web as to who the lucky winner is.
Giving away a free stand and delegate places for an important event like FOMA08 is a great way to support cash-strapped startups who are hungry for exposure in the UK - well done, Sun.
Written on June 18, 2008 – 7:54 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Thanks to a ‘stumble‘ by Melody McCloskey, I’ve found this brilliant footage of the trip Diggnation made to Amsterdam for The Next Web Conference. Especially fun are the parts about the Speakers Dinner at Boris’ house and some random footage from the live show. We’re really glad that Glenn, Kevin, Alex, Jim, and the others had a good time.
Written on May 31, 2008 – 12:31 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Some things in life seem so unimportant, yet when they change you’ll immediately notice it. An example: have you ever changed the position of your office litter bin? If you have ever did so, you probably remember you threw your garbage on the ground - on the exact place where your litter bin used to stand. Well, same goes for the Google favicon. It’s always there, you’re likely to just ignore it, but now that it has changed, it’s such an incredibly salient little thing.
The big G has changed into a small g. And though I hate to report about minor stuff like this - in Dutch we call it belly-button staring -, I had to share this interesting thought from a Google Blogoscoped forum member with you. Tony Ruscoe is philosophizing about the meaning behind this new favicon:
“Is Google undergoing a rebranding exercise…? Maybe they’re going to be known as ’the little g’ rather than ’The Big G’ from now on…
Google continues to grow and grow, but one of their self-proclaimed core values is “Think and act like an underdog”.
I had never heard of this core value, yet I’m sure to keep it in mind. It puts the whole Google strategy in another perspective. Maybe they have even lost the European Gmail case deliberately to appear like the poor underdog (insert wink smiley here).
One thing if for sure though, the more traction your service has, the more people talk about those minor changes. During The Next Web Conference, Digg founder Kevin Rose expressed the wish to have a small number of users again. So he could make radical changes to his social bookmarking service more easily. I see what he means, as only changing your favicon can be good for 276 blogposts with hundreds of comments.
Last week at the Next Web Conference in Amsterdam Kevin Rose said: “We have to fix the Upcoming section because it’s broken. Nobody can follow the 50,000 new stories users submit per day”.
The future might not have been very far ahead of us. Digg.com just went down with the following message: “Digg will be down for a brief period, while we make some changes.”.
A few other quotes about the new features Kevin talked about:
Kevin: “When you digg a story that already has 3,000 diggs, you have no idea who those other 2999 people are. What else are they digging?”
As soon as Digg gets online again we will report it here and let you know if there are new features you can test.
UPDATE: Digg seems to come to live again. You can see the homepage between reloads.
Update II: yes, the account page seems to have been revamped. Not sure if this also includes the options described by Kevin Rose but will test some more. Here is a screenshot of the new page (click for fullscreen) and here is a link to a screenshot of the old one:
UPDATE III: Hmm, the old unknown fatal exception bug you sometimes get while Digging something is still here!
UPDATE IV: Aha, and the comment “There was a problem completing your request. Please reload the page and try again” bug is still alive too!
Written on April 3, 2008 – 11:58 pm Chris Obdam, Internet entrepreneur
Day One has finished and we have seen lots of great stuff and speakers. From the immortal web to the semantic web in 8 hours. That’s only possible at The Next Web! And of course, not to forget, a live Diggnation show in Amsterdam. With people flying in from all over Europe: Denmark, Germany, Sweden and France. Only to see Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht present Diggnation.
But it was probably worth the drive or the flight. What fun we had! Talking on stage about Red Heads and Table f*cking.. :-) The crowd went wild and they even started an mustache rage seen latest in the early 60’s… Later on the party moved to the inner centre of Amsterdam where you had to possibility to chat with the guys and drink beer with them. The people from Rummble threw a nice party with (again) free beer. Yes, free beer is definitively a hot topic amongst the Diggnation guys. But, ok, who’s not in for a free drink?
Tomorrow you can again see a lot new great start-ups, Werner Vogels from Amazon and lots more. Check the conference online and watch the live stream through-out the day! First up tomorrow: An Internation Open Coffee meeting.
Written on April 3, 2008 – 12:47 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Kevin Rose is officiously one of the most famous Web 2.0 entrepreneurs. He has co-founded Revision3, Pownce, and of course his most popular company Digg. Somebody with such an entrepreneurial spirit certainly has something to tell, so we asked Scott Rafer - who also managed successful start-ups such as MyBlogLog - to interview Kevin on stage.
So the first question that comes to everybody’s mind is: how can you handle three start-ups at the same time? Rose: “It’s a matter of getting the right management in place”. For example, Kevin appointed Leah Culver as the lead developer of Pownce. She runs the show from day to day, while Kevin makes the strategic decisions.
Digg however, takes a lot of time. Kevin: “Digg is like my full-time job, the one I work on for 60 hours a week”. Moreover, the Digg-founder told that the company is large enough now - 55 employees - for things to happen on their own. He used to panic when the servers crashed, now he has a team to take care of a crisis like that.
Scott also asked Kevin some questions about the future of Digg. Kevin: “We have to fix the Upcoming section because it’s broken. Nobody can follow the 50,000 new stories users submit per day”. So how will Rose and his team do this? Well, they’re gonna follow the 3.0 trend by letting in the experts.
Kevin: “When you digg a story that already has 3,000 diggs, you have no idea who those other 2999 people are. What else are they digging?” So Digg will make connections and introduce you to other stories that might interest you. Some of them might not even be popular yet. They’ll make those connections by, amongst other things, following the so-called pressure users: the users that have an eye for good content. Based on their digg-behavior, the team can make better recommendations.
So ‘Digg suggests’ is an upcoming feature. If you can’t wait for that service to arrive, you might want to try the DiggSuggest web-app.
Written on October 9, 2008 – 1:23 pm
Kevin described the gap he wanted Digg to fill as being placed between the filters of people you know, and an unfiltered mass audience. This gap, said Rose, would be filled by Digg in future with its recommendation engine, providing an intersection of your news, and news from ‘diggers like you’.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=0b5ea69e-8813-40ff-bcfa-f228c916f423)
Written on September 7, 2008 – 1:24 pm
So far, I haven’t reported about the whole Nano buzz. 
Written on May 28, 2008 – 9:17 am
Written on April 3, 2008 – 11:58 pm
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
