Tech Crunch Xmas Crunch

This article was a guest writer post by Misae Richwoods for thenextwomen.com. You can see part 1 and part 2 on their site. Below is the original copy:

Tech Crunch conferences always promise to be star studded gala affairs with the A-list of IT innovators coming together to share ideas across a diverse range of industries. This year’s Xmas Crunch was held at a suitably decadent location – Gilgamesh in Camden. Call me Miss Marple of the Fashion world if you will, I had sneaking suspicion I’d walked onto the set of Vogue advert. A chat with some of the staff confirmed my thoughts – Gilgamesh is home to many fashion shoots outside of the seasonal boom.

High fashion in tech today is the Real Time web. It’s been as revolutionary for many industries as the invention of nylon was for fashion. Yet with many online business models looking as laddered as long weekend's lingerie, being involved and informed on the changes reshaping the economy have never been more important. As Daniel Tenner of Woobius eloquently articulated of the threat 'we need to pay attention because who knows if the Google Wave will turn into a tsunami that sweeps away many businesses?'

Nick Halstead of tweetmeme.com got his visionary tweezers out and started to pluck out those emerging hairs that are starting to make the internet as we know it a mess. Google's famous Page Rank system enables it to weigh the internet into a hierarchy. However Page Rank has become increasingly well understood and exploited by others which now erodes its ability to deliver the best results. Think Demand Media, AOL and Mahalo, all of whose strategies degrade Page Rank’s strength.

We're also now seeing publishers headed by Rupert Murdoch make moves against Google's use of their content. Whilst 25% of their traffic comes direct from Google, will it be internet suicide to close off Google's free use of publisher’s content? Technical means are already freely available to all publishers who want to limit indexing by search engines; the current legal posturing by Murdoch indicates it's not so much keeping Google out he's set his eyes on, it's much more about setting precedent as to how money flows through the net ecosystem.

Both these points show that Google's dominance of the internet as we know it, still has many challenges to contend with and that “the internet high street” of established search results may no longer be the source of all things profitable. Yet what Google had done well with the internet is what the real time web is still struggling with. How do we determine who is a reliable and trustworthy authority amongst the noise of our Twitter stream? I’m sure I speak for everyone with over 200 friends when I say I second Nick's opinion that using Twitter to stay on top of what's going on is at best a messy solution.

The future of publishing will therefore mean that curation will be a key development. Taking the latest information out of the background noise and presenting it will be built with the technologies emerging in semantics, location and authority. I don't think I'm being overstated when I say that the Twitter stream we have today is still very much a diamond in the rough. As the real time ecosystem develops better ways to polish it, we'll see it shine and reflect many facets. We'll also be unlocking its true value.

When will our little baby, the real time internet, start to grow up? Is it still busily throwing it toys about and having upset tummies or is it starting to crawl to its mummy?

Outside of publishing, other industries have been savaged by digital demands and few as much as the entertainment industry. David Maher of The Filter started to point out that whilst the music and movie industry's revenue streams seem to have eloped for a rather sordid affair with the internet, bosses are now getting far more clued up on technology and what can be done with it. David's thoughts are that real time internet adds massive value to live broadcast and he expects 2010 and 2011 to be when we start to see the West Coast giants launching some apps and engaging with the audience much more intimately. This notion of live value add to entertainment was also supported later by Ian Hogarth of Songkick and Tim Morgan of Mint Digital.

Tim Bradshaw, digital correspondent for The Financial Times, has a good finger on the pulse of what’s moving the financial markets. His thoughts can roughly be summed up as “No-one has floored a company’s share price by tweeting something like Steve Jobs has had a heart attack – yet. I can’t see that being that far off”. Sounds like baby is making noise!

The convergence of real time together with mobile communications is creating a wealth of innovation. Affect Labs who pitched at The Next Women’s Darwinian Business event in October were present and represent one of a growing number of start ups adding colour and depth to the eco-system. Karen Barber was as well put together as Gok Wan show while Mark Rock spoke of how Audioboo fitted in. Sophie Cox of WorldEka, Hermione Way of Techfluff.tv, Emily Marchant of The Funding Partnership and Poppy Dinsey of Globrix all brought the glamour stakes a little higher with some beautiful outfits, yet the award for Queen of Fashion for the night had to be graced upon Helen Brown who brought out a stunning little number that quite simple was nothing other than CatwalkGenius.com!

Helen’s pitch showcased her crowd funding innovation to help budding designers and style hungry fashionistas come together and create new fashion. In a nutshell, fashionistas back up and coming designers by buying shares in the production of new designs. When enough shares are sold to make production viable, the designer creates the garment and the backer gets a percentage of all sales relative to the number of shares in it they own. With the investment starting at just £11, it’s inclusive enough to cater for all whether you’re Miss Prada Purse or New Look. You pay through PayPal and should the designer fail to attract sufficient funding to make that garment a reality then your money gets returned or you can invest it into another project. I’ll certainly be looking forward to seeing CatwalkGenius.com’s events for new designers when I’m at London Fashion Week next year. By spreading the cost of production to all interested parties, CatwalkGenius solves the funding issue that holds so many talented young designers from bringing us gorgeous and unique new clothes. Couple that with its retail platform and the promise of what might be a bright future lingers on like brush of cashmere against the skin.

Thanks go to Mike Butcher and the team at Tech Crunch – who of course would be pulling their hair out if it wasn’t for those wonderful women, Rassami Hokljungberg and Petra Johansson, who kept the show running. Thanks also to Barry Vitou and Danvers Baillieu, of Bootlaw.com, for laying on such quality hospitality for everyone and Sun Start Up Essentials, UKTI and the Press Association for helping make the event happen together with everyone who came along and made the event so vibrant. Happy Xmas all!