Published: April 24, 2008

Tim O'Reilly Web 2.0 Keynote Issues Challenge to Go After Big Hard Problems

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On Wednesday, Tim O'Reilly, CEO and Evangelist of O'Reilly Media gave the opening Keynote Address at Web2.0 Expo in San Francisco. His opening statement included "We are in the middle of an enormous change, we're making a change in the world."

He said "If you're following the headlines, you can become confused."

O'Reilly's Keynote speech was brilliant and inspiring, talking about "the internet as the platform" noting there is a revolution going on, a huge change is under way, in the way the world works.

There may not be any money in doing the great things he talked about, but who cares, the things he talks about in the speech are worth doing. "I want to urge you to not follow the headlines ... but to think about and go after big hard problems."

At the end of the speech, O'Reilly jumped off the stage to read a poem, called "The Man Watching" by Rainer Maria Rilke that begins:

"What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names."

Make a difference.

See the video for the complete Keynote Speech.

Tim O'Reilly Web 2.0 Keynote

Editor's Note: The mainstream media seem to be confused about a lot of things. The CNet report on this keynote, says "It's a sign that Web 2.0, with technologies such as wikis, blogs, tags, social networks, and collective intelligence, is maturing." [ CNet ]

Web 2.0 is not maturing. No two people can even agree what Web 2.0 means, a sure sign of immaturity.

Write to comment AT newsblaze DOT com to give us your definition of Web 2.0.