The Next Web

TheNextWeb2008 Update: Love, Internet Access and Attention

Written on March 30, 2008 – 2:31 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

If you came here from Digg it would be great if you could actually Digg us too! Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!

In only 3 days The Next Web Conference 2008 will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We will post short daily updates about speakers, initiatives and events here.

Love & Attention A lot of people have been asking us if we would provide Internet access and Wi-Fi during The Next Web Conference 2008. We sort of avoided the question and sometimes even said ‘No’. This has caused concern with some people so I thought it would be a good time to explain our ideas about the subject. But first THE answer to the question: “Will there be Wi-Fi for participants at The Next Web Conference 2008?”

The short answer: Yes.

The long answer: Yes, and a lot more! We will have a special area with wired ethernet connections to a 100mbit Up and Down connection, the fastest connection we could get. This area (front left at the main conference area) will also have enough power sockets to keep everybody online all day. In addition, we will have Wi-Fi connections for the rest of the audience people. We plan to split these up in several groups of 50 people who will all be able to connect to their own access point.

This means that if one of those groups takes the network down, at least the other groups will still be online until we restart the device. And if the Wi-Fi fails we always have wired backup for you. One thing: we DO expect the wireless network to go down. It is our experience that Wi-Fi becomes extremely unreliable when you get more than 30 people in the same room connected.

We hope that the speakers will be so extremely inspiring and captivating that the use of computers will be limited to live blogging, twittering and digitally reporting about the speakers on stage.

The Next Web, just like the current web, runs on love and attention.
We hope you will give our speakers lots of both. ;-)

attention, connectivity, internet, speakers, thenextweb2008, wifi

9 Comments »

France: trains with Wifi connection on board

Written on March 26, 2008 – 3:15 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

When traveling through Europe, trains come in handy. It’s cheaper and sometimes faster than flying. Moreover, the train seats are more comfortable than the cramped up Easyjet chairs. You even got the space to open your laptop without having to sit with your elbows in your neck. So far, there’s only thing missing though: wireless Internet. Of course some people have this Vodafone satellite connection, but that’s just slow. No, we need a fast and reliable connection.

Well, vive la France! The French are making my wireless Internet dream reality. Railway company SNCF announced today that the company is running tests with three trains from and to Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg. It’s just six weeks before the first Internet-equipped train will leave the station.

The infrastructure of the wireless connection has been developed by Orange, Capgemini, Eutelsat and Alstom Transport and is suitable for every Train Grande Vitesse.

I think it’s a great way to lure travelers away from planes into trains. A lot of people will save time and money if they can keep working online during a trip. The only thing that might temper my enthusiasm is the price SNCF will charge for a Wifi key.

Europe, france, internet, tgv, trains, traveling, wifi

7 Comments »

Internet Party: When Google’s parents leave town…

Written on January 25, 2008 – 7:48 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,

Its quality is debatable, the acting is bad and the jokes are childish. But you can’t help but smile while watching this movie. I actually watched it twice! So far, it has been viewed 120.000 times in Youtube and received over 9000 diggs. I guess the makers hit a nerve with the internet audience. Wonder what you think about it: