The Future of Web Apps ( FOWA ) is a long, long shadow

The Day 1 afternoon sessions at Future of Web Apps (FOWA) were a lot better than the a.m in my view - more passion and more detail. Here follows a blog on them, though in my laziness I have linked to others' notes.

First up was Ted Rheingold of Dogster/Catster about Secrets of Success which were:

- Make Money
- Get good Advisers
- Learn Business Finance
- Chase every pound – out and in
- Sell, sell, sell – cold calling is your friend
- Nearly all overnight successes are 3-4 year games

Not exactly new stuff (though probably still accurate) and there was quite a bit of sniggering in the audience near me, Ted saved himself in the Q&A with noting that a they made the serious Ad money by using direct ad deals, not networks, and discussing their funding / burn / time to breakeven - thats the useful stuff.

Next up was Etsy - Presented with enthusiasm and quite a lot insight by the very interesting guy who started it, Robert Kalin – a refreshing change on the day so far. Lots of great philosophical discussion about the future of money and the structure of corporations, and all very good stuff to chew on - but at the end of the day you come back to the point that Etsy is a website that flogs handmade gewgaws, albeit with a higher self awareness

Suw has done a good transcript of Ted's Q&A here Robert's talk here which does it justice.

After tea Lane Becker & Thor Muller of Satisfaction went through the concept of customer service being the new marketing. The cynic in me (surely not!) assumed this would just be Customer Satisfaction theory rediscovered (Moments of Truth anyone) - and it was to an extent - but they really went into the practice in a broadband social media environment. I warmed to them when they pointed out that for some businesses putting teh customer first is irrational (hurrah - they get it) and I liked their concept of managing customers via the "Concierge" - In essence its to:

- Put Conversation at the Center of Business
- Reduce Sphere of Control - don't try and control everything
- Break down the silos - both in company and in supply chain

What was good was the way they actually fleshed out the thoughts with examples. Stephanie Booth has more stuff here

Next up was Umair Haque with next generation Web Product Strategy - Umair is always good value for provoking thought, even if one doesn't always agree with him. Anyway, he gave a series of trends for the New Worlds:

- Open Beats Closed (my view - not quite - in early industry formation closed usually beats open initially)
- Betters beat Good Enough (my view - eventually - good enoughs can hang on to market share for a long time)
- Plastic beats Specific (ie flexible, not dedicated, asset bases - more true as info component increases)
- Good beats Evil (disagree.....game theory simulations show there is continual wax and wane here)
- Failure beats Success (I know what he's getting at here - essentially expect to fail and revise plans fast)
- Play beats Work (are we rediscovering Schumacher?)
- Culture beats Brand (Agree - brands were shorthands in open loop worlds - now the brand is the conversation - or a old timers would say, an accumulation of the Moments of truth - in a networked world)
- Competition is a Commodity - (errrm...sounds good, not sure about that though)
- Markets/Networks beat Firms (Yes and No...Ronald Coase showed in the 1930's that a firm's structure is merely a construct of the costs of transactions in any one time/place. Changeth the economics, changeth the "firm". What is actually going on is the restructuring of the "Firm" into looser, smaller structures (and by definition more adapted for the new environment) are more efficient - but expect "firms" themselves to start to adapt and change shape too, though as their "DNA" is for a different phenotype they will really struggle to adapt and some won't make it)

One thing I did like was the concept of the "long shadow of the future", ie the record of behaviour is there to be seen. Game theorists will recognise this as the impact of memory in a system and recall how it changes the optimum strategy one uses (ie defecting behaviour is less effective as memory in a system grows)

Lastly Scott Rafer who talked about how to structure your data capture to maximise its value to both the business and a potential acquirer. He noted that:

- 90% of todays economy doesn't understand the value and possibility of online data
- Old companies get stuck in capturing old data (cashflow etc)
- New data is where disruptions can be found

Noted though that respecting user privacy is critical for any ongoing service.