The East Coast version of Graphing Social Patterns, a conference for developers and marketers building and distributing apps for MySpace, Facebook and the myriad of other social networking platforms out there, will kick off next week in Washington, D.C. GSP East will tackle social networking from two angles — one, business and marketing; and two, app development and technical strategy. As GigaOM is a media partner for this event, we have one free ticket to give away, and it’s valued at $1195. Simply tell us in the comments section what conference topics you’d like us to cover over the coming year. (Don’t forget to leave a valid email so that if we pick your answer, we can get in touch with you.) Or go here to register and use code “gspe08gig” to get a 15 percent discount off the ticket price.
I’d like to hear more about novel/different web monetization strategies that startups are using. Google Adsense has gotten old.
I’d personally like to see conference topics relative to social media / user generated content, cloud based applications, open source development, security, and revenue strategies for web publishers.
… to expand on my first comment:
My biggest area of interest is in security issues related to cloud computing, social media and open source technologies. Security remains a concern for the increasing number of enterprise focused cloud and open source application developers, however the the obligation of cloud and open source application producers to protect their users may be less clear than with traditional commercial application vendors. With the opening of social platform APIs, attacks against user privacy is also a growing concern.
At the same time, the security industry is currently focused on protecting private networks against viruses, intrusions, and other attacks. A focus on application security outside corporate firewalls seems to be beyond the capability of most security product vendors.
While likely ahead of it’s time, a conference that bridges the gap between the quickly evolving worlds of open source, social media, and cloud computing and the security product vendor world would be extremely interesting in my mind.
I would like to see GIGAOM focus on niche content sites. Maybe a little away from the tech arena.
Eg:today i received a twitter link to miningweekly.com (pkedrosky)
It has superb insight on the mining industry. Its not my area of expertise but very interesting information.
There are several such gems out there and it would create an interesting mix to your tech heavy conferences.
I would like to see topics like next generation hosting and infrastructure related subjects, mobile applications and monetization strategies, behavioral targeting and advertising industry and open source developments.
PLEASE talk about how engagement is evolving as the new metric and standard for monetization within Social Media. Google has conquered text and keywords. Who is conquering engagement and how are they doing it?
Some Gigaom conference topics for 2008 could include:
Mobile Web – Carriers have invested billions in next-gen spectrum, the race is on between Wimax and LTE; competing development platforms such as Windows Mobile, Android, and Apple – as processing and power consumption becomes more efficient, combined with ubiquitous high speed data availability, we will see a wave of new applications and devices; being on the forefront of this will help readers see where things are going
Technology, Commerce and Politics – Topics relevant to this readership from the upcoming GOP and DNC conventions, as well as candidate positions on relevant issues. Additionally, how new media services such as social networks and engagement marketing are used by different campaigns, along with their effectiveness.
Fixed Mobile Convergence – In all of its manifestations and definitions, Gigaom is the type of place that can sift through the hype and make sense of who is offering what products and what those products will do for their potential customers. FMC is beginning to see momentum from large providers in the telco and software sectors that will can provide the name recognition, legitimacy, and muscle to penetrate FMC products deeper into mainstream markets.
SaaS – A source of great interest for the telco and software industries, the disruption of the market for storage, processing, and user interfaces and all of the benefits and new issues that come with them.
Energy related topics – Driven by growing energy costs and social consciousness around the environment, and the focus on these issues as a result of the election year. Topics ranging from cost saving products such as telepresence to lower energy consumption, and environmentally friendly materials for devices such as cell phones, to name a few
Advertising and monetization – How new services will be able to get beyond a “good idea” and begin to make money with their products. If the economy weakens there will be greater competition for capital and a higher demand on fiscal accountability and return on investment.
VoIP and Communications – VoIP continues to be an obfuscating term that describes a lot of different products and services. It is really an enabler for a variety of communications services ranging from cable telephony to live voice on a gaming console. New services will continue to launch, featuring varying value propositions, customer segments in consumer and enterprise, and very different business models. It will be interesting to see VoIP evolve from something that enables cheaper dial tone to something that enables new communications that were not previously attainable.
I would like to hear more about the long-term data preservation and contextualization efforts of major social media sites like FB and Flickr.
I’m most interested in methods of abstracting social networking and content delivery. I suppose the sessions most applicable to that are “Widget Strategies & Social Platforms”, “The Joy of Widgets: Everything You Want to Know But Were Afraid to Ask”, “Social Networks & the NEED for FEEDS” and “Privacy & Data Portability for Social Networks”. I suppose it is really about the intersection of all of those areas. Widgets + Feeds + Data Portability, etc.
Pick me! I really want to go.
I would also like to more about SEO/SEM. Google adwords are by far the leader, but I am sure many more must be better.
I’d like to read more about entrepreneurs and “how-tos” on entrepreneurship, maybe also have guest posts on entrepreneurial authorities (e.g. Mark Andreesen for Social Networking). From what i’ve heard, this is something the conference is really good at.
I honestly have no idea what one would call this conference, but I’d like to see more of a focus on how to successfully mix teams of developers and non-developers/subject matter experts. (I think this is along the lines of SF’s comment above).
All suits are @@sholes, we’re told. Developers just want to talk to developers. It doesn’t have to be that way, right? How can we make it easier to meet each other halfway? Let’s break down these barriers and infuse the industry with new ideas.
Ever read the Medici Effect?
Thank you to our readers for submitting such thoughtful and helpful responses. We couldn’t choose just one winner because of the number of great responses. So here are our three winners: Andrew Eye, Michael, and Christopher.
If you didn’t win a pass, GigaOM readers can still get 15% off conference registration. Simply go to http://en.oreilly.com/gspeast2008/public/content/home and enter the code gspe08gig.
Just to remind our readers, GigaOM has Structure 08 coming up on June 25th in San Francisco which will delve into how to put cloud computing to work. Your comments validated how important this question is today. Also, we have our Mobilize conference in the fall. Contact us at program@gigaom.com if you have more suggestions.
i’m guessing this could fall under the lines of general app development, app monetization, and aggregating data, but when will social apps start to approach something more than friend activity and interaction outside of the context of something ‘fun’ while taking off in popularity?
or maybe the better question is if the audience is ready for such things? for instance, would a ’social calendar’ be a viable and useful app? what about real group collaboration of some sort? or will the nature of these platforms be that we’re going to see mostly mash-ups to build a more complex app?
Joey / GigaOm – Thank you for selecting my comment.
Kaiser – efforts such as WorkStreamer (http://workstreamer.com/) are attempting to do just that. I expect social tools to go drastically in that direction this year.