Sebastopol, CA--Today's technical challenges are no longer about generating digital data--we have more than enough already--but rather, finding innovative ways to visualize, filter, remix, and access it. The 2006 edition of ETech, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, will grapple with these issues by highlighting the cutting-edge techniques and technologies highly prolific geeks employ and invent to make sense of the immense amount of data now pouring into everyday life. Registration has just opened for ETech, which will take place March 6-9 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California.
ETech's focus on the Attention Economy--a new order of tools and services to help us sort through the flood of digital data--is gaining traction throughout all levels of the computing industry. Conference program chair Rael Dornfest and his committee received a record number of speaking proposals, one indication of just how critical the issue of attenuation of data is to the alpha geek community. The preliminary schedule includes plenary presentations, on-stage conversations, sessions, and tutorials with:
- Eric Von Hippel, MIT Sloan School of Management
- Linda Stone, former Microsoft VP
- Jon Udell, InfoWorld
- Bruce Sterling, author
- Caterina Fake, Yahoo!/Flickr
- Jeffrey Veen, Adaptive Path
- Dick Hardt, Sxip
- Kathy Sierra, Creating Passionate Users
- Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Media
- Richard Kilmer, InfoEther
- Alex Russell, JotSpot
- Michael Jefferson, NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program
- Danah Boyd, University of California, Berkeley
- Mark Pilgrim, IBM
- Jason Schultz, Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Eric Bonabeau, Icosystem
- Amy Jo Kim, game designer
- Nick Ludlum, Promise.tv
- Charles Armstrong, Trampoline Systems
Dornfest and the conference team are planning a number of mind-opening activities during the event. Back by popular demand is the Maker Fest, an amazing, hands-on, science fair style demonstration of DIY projects by and for geeks. In addition, the eBay Developers Challenge has just been announced; winners of the contest will participate at ETech. Several sponsors have already lined up to take part at ETech, including: IBM, MSN Search, Nokia, eBay Developers Program, Sxip, Taskport, Macromeda, Nokia, Mapquest, and Zimbra.
We're inundated with technologies for creating, aggregating, and distributing data--the next important breakthroughs will be the tools that serve as the gatekeepers of our attention. As Jon Udell puts it, "Devices are on or off. Channels are open or closed. The vast middle ground between those two states remains largely unexplored." That middle ground is where we're unleashing the collective intelligence of ETech 2006.
ETech participants include technologists, CTOs, chief scientists, researchers, programmers, hackers, business developers, entrepreneurs, and other interested parties. Last year's ETech hosted a standing-room-only crowd, and it's anticipated that the 2006 edition will also reach capacity. Media passes will be available on a limited basis only.
The O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference features a range of technologies that are growing just below the horizon of commercial viability, placing a spotlight on the projects, people, and business models likely to become very important to the future of internet computing. From peer-to-peer networks, person-to-person mobile messaging, web services, and weblogs to big screen digital media, small screen mobile gaming, hardware hacking, and content remixing, ETech pries open the transformative new technologies destined show up in the products and services we're all taking for granted in the not-too-distant future.
O'Reilly conferences include: the O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference (ETel); OSCON, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention; the O'Reilly European Open Source Convention (EuroOSCON); the MySQL Users Conference, co-presented with MySQL AB; Where 2.0 Conference; and Web 2.0 (co-hosted by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle, and co-produced with MediaLive International). O'Reilly conferences bring together forward-thinking business and technology leaders, shaping ideas and influencing industries around the globe. For over 25 years, O'Reilly has facilitated the adoption of new and important technologies by the enterprise, putting emerging technologies on the map.
Additional Information:
- Complete details on ETech sessions, speakers, and activities
- Apply for media credentials
- eBay Developers Challenge details
- News articles, blogs, announcements, and photos (available for use with attribution) from ETech 2005
- ETech 2005 plenary presentations
For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at O'Reilly
conferences, contact Andrew Calvo at (707) 827-7176 or
andrewc@oreilly.com
To become a media sponsor at O'Reilly conferences, contact Margi Levin at
(707) 827-7184 or
margi@oreilly.com
Other upcoming O'Reilly conferences:
- O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference, January 24-26, 2006 in Burlingame, California
- MySQL Users Conference, April 24-27 in Santa Clara, California
- Where 2.0, June date to be announced in the San Francisco Bay Area
- O'Reilly Open Source Convention, July 24-28 in Portland, Oregon
- O'Reilly European Open Source Convention, fall 2006
- Web 2.0, fall 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area
About O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.