Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco has opened registration, and we’re offering you, our blog readers, a 25% discount if you use discount code websf10bl25 to register. Alternatively, you can get a free Expo Hall Only pass when you use discount code websf10snex.

Speaker List

This year’s speaker list (far from complete) includes

• Baratunde Thurston
• Paul Buchheit
• Eric Ries
• Clara Shih
• Ben Huh
• Steve Blank

If you want a great preview of what you might see, here’s a video of Baratunde Thurston at Web 2.0 Expo New York 2009:

Conference Tracks

The conference agenda includes four main Conference tracks:

• Strategy & Business Models
• Social Media Marketing
• Design & User Experience
• Development

Our six Focus Tracks include Mobile, Community, Real-time, Analytics, Enterprise, and Cloud Computing.

This Year’s Theme: The Power of Platforms

Ten years ago, companies like AOL, Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Earthlink, and eBay battled to define the ways we would use the Web. The winners drew millions of customers, but more importantly, they spawned ecosystems that created huge opportunities for partners, vendors and competitors. Today, new wars with new players like Facebook, Twitter, and Bing are emerging on the Web—wars that create hard questions for businesses that must decide their own roles in our increasingly mobile, social, and real-time world. Web 2.0 Expo highlights the important debates, handicaps the key players, and helps you pick the winning platforms for growth in a web-fueled world.

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If you have any questions about this year’s content, be sure to leave them in the comments!

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Kaitlin Pike is the Community Manager for Web 2.0 Expo. She can be reached @w2e or @kcpike.

Are hyper-local online communities the wave of the future? Many location-based apps (think Foursquare or Gowalla or Yelp) have caught on quickly, and Facebook and Twitter will likely add the option to make updates location-aware.  In response, some in the Web 2.0 world are shifting away from making products that create national or international communities. Instead, they’re looking at the local level and hope to conquer the world city by city, even neighborhood by neighborhood.

These relative newcomers were likely inspired by pioneering, local online community makers such as Topix. Founded in 2002, Topix is – as their About Us page says – “the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and city.” It aggregates news from thousands of sources across the web and delivers content based on your chosen zip code (there’s an international audience as well of course).

But beyond posting news stories, Topix encourages its users to comment and report on stories going on in their own neighborhood. Due to this focus on community, Topix receives over 30,000 comments a day, most of which are focused on the local level.

Topix CEO Chris Tolles was gracious enough to answer a few of our questions about local online communities, user generated content, and the future of the newspaper industry (including what he thinks of Rupert Murdoch’s threat to pull News Corp. content off of Google News). Chris will also be speaking at Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco this May, so be sure to register later this week!

Without further ado, another Web 2.0 Expo Speaker Interview:

Kaitlin: In a recent Topix blog post, you noted that “Topix has gone from being merely an aggregator of local news, to becoming the home of local voice on the web”. You base this on the fact that 60% of articles on Topix are original, user generated news stories, and 75% of pageviews on Topix are on the commentary.

First of all, how did you get there? What specifically makes Topix different from any other site that can throw up a comment board and host “a community”?

Chris: It’s that we have created this commentary around locality. We have 30,000 forums around specific US cities and towns. Also, we have reached critical mass with over 90,000,000 comments across millions of different threads. We created this initially as an adjunct to the news we aggregated. Now, it has really turned into the main focus of the site, especially in areas with poor news coverage.

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EDIT: We have now closed registration for our webcast. Thank you for your interest!

“My nightmare is someone would ask me a question, and I wouldn’t see it.”

Jenny Cisney spends hours searching online for what people are saying about Kodak – “looking for trouble” as she calls it. As their Chief Blogger and Social Media Manager, she’s a first responder to questions or comments on Twitter about Kodak, and she blogs about such things as Kodak giveaways, Kodak Picture of the Day winners, and as was the case for the recent 2010 International CES, Kodak booth news and updates during conferences and events.

“I would tweet something like ‘first person to take a photo of yourself in the booth and send it to me on Twitter wins a digital camera,’” Cisney said about one of her many giveaway promotions at CES that generated significant buzz—and booth traffic—for Kodak.

Cisney is one of the growing number of social media managers companies hire to proactively engage customers online and to help drive interest at shows and conferences. Although social media marketing is growing, most event exhibitors have yet to fully explore tools like Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, or blogs.

To help bridge the gap, we at Web 2.0 Expo are hosting a free webcast, “Effective Social Media for Event Exhibitors,” on Tuesday, February 23 at 10 a.m. PST. Led by Web 2.0 Expo Co-Chair and “The Twitter Book” co-author Sarah Milstein and myself (Kaitlin Pike), the one-hour session will feature real-life success stories and practical tips for using services such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and your own company blog for efficient marketing before, during, and after a show. We’ll follow the presentation with a meaty Q&A, so bring your questions.

Register for this webcast below by filling out the Google form we’ve created. We’ll email you the necessary information to sign in and join us. Space is limited, so please sign up now if you are interested.

During the webcast, we’ll discuss how Cisney and other exhibitors use social media to drive booth traffic and generate leads during events.  Specific topics we’ll cover include

• Tools and websites to use
• Measuring success with social media
• Pre- and post-show strategy
• Demographics of different social networks
• Tested and proven giveaway contests
• Organizing Booth Tweet Ups
• Upcoming trends

One strategy in particular we’ll discuss is how to start talking about your booth activities well in advance of the show. Even if you’re planning to do a lot of blogging or tweeting from the show, you’ll get better booth traffic if attendees learn ahead of time about interesting things you’re doing and can plan to visit you. “Not everyone is walking around the show checking Twitter,” Cisney notes.

If you have any questions about the webcast, please leave them in the comments or talk to us @w2e.

We look forward to talking with you in February!

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Kaitlin Pike is the Community Manager of Web 2.0 Expo. She can be reached @w2e.

Sarah Milstein is the Co-Chair of Web 2.0 Expo. She can be reached @SarahM.

Thank you to all who attended Web 2.0 Expo New York this November. We hoped you enjoyed your time as much as we enjoyed hosting you.

We have a small favor to ask you: We’d like you to tell us what you really thought of our conference, and what we can do to make it even better. Take our survey by logging in with the same credentials you used to register for Web 2.0 Expo New York.

As an incentive, if you take the survey you’ll be entered to win a Kindle, shipped to you at no cost.

Speaker Presentations

Did a certain session really wow you? Want to check out the content of sessions you had to miss? Luckily for you, we have dozens of speakers’ slides available online for your perusal. Please keep in mind that not all speakers choose to share their files, which is why you may not see the presentation you were looking for.

Rate the Sessions You Attended

If you haven’t already, please take a minute to rate the conference sessions you attended and let us know what you liked, what you didn’t, and why, by logging into the Attendee Directory and rating each session from one to five stars. These ratings help shape next year’s program.

Keynote Videos

In case you missed any (or want to go back and see them again), video of the keynotes from Web 2.0 Expo New York are available as well.

Flickr Photos

Hundreds of photos from Web 2.0 Expo have been posted to Flickr. Don’t forget to post your own photos of the event and tag photos with web2expo.

News and Coverage

Take a look at the media and blog coverage generated at Web 2.0 Expo New York on the News and Coverage page.

Thank you once again for joining the Web 2.0 community in New York. We look forward to seeing you next year!

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Kaitlin Pike is the Web 2.0 Expo community manager. She can be reached @w2e.

Paige Finkelman would like to teach you how to rob her—or any victim—more efficiently next time.

“Communication is essential,” Paige, who will speak at tonight’s Ignite Bay Area | Women Innovators, said. (Web 2.0 Expo is a sponsor of the event.) “It makes the experience for the muggee less painful.”

Although the 5-minute talk focuses on her mugging experience, Paige also intends to examine how communication can break down and escalate into conflict, whether it be with coworkers, friends, or family. As was the case with her mugging, lack of communication resulted in physical violence.

“I didn’t know what was happening because I was attacked from behind,” she said. “I didn’t know she was mugging me.”

While walking home from the grocery store through San Francisco’s Mission District last October, Paige felt a hand touch the back of her head. She assumed it was a friend playing a trick. The would-be mugger then grabbed a chunk of Paige’s hair, whirled her around and punched her in the face, leaving her with a “joker black eye.” Paige clung tightly to her laptop bag in an almost instinctive response to the hitting, which became a full-on beating. She realized later, long after the female assailant had left, that the target had been the computer.

“She didn’t communicate clearly to me that she wanted my things,” Paige said. If the mugger had first communicated what she wanted—and given an ultimatum involving violent consequences—both her and Paige could have had a win-win situation: The mugger would have gotten the laptop, and Paige would have avoided the beating and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Besides, laptops are easily replaced. “I’m insured, I’m employed; what do I have to lose?” she said.

In response to her experience, Paige created “A New Way to Mug” for robbers to follow:

1. State the other person’s behavior: “She has a laptop, and she’s just walking around with it.”
2. State your emotional response: “That pisses me off. I want that laptop.”
3. State choices to the other person as a result of your emotional response: “If you don’t give me that laptop I’m going to get violent.”

Although the example for these three steps involves muggers, Paige believes they should be applied much more broadly. “This can be used in any situation requiring negotiation,” she said.

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After the recent Web 2.0 Expo NY–a sprawling, week-long conference and exhibition–I ducked into the Morgan Library to catch A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy. A one-room show about an 18th century novelist seemed like the perfect antidote to a week of tech talk in the Death Star Javits Center.

As I’d hoped, the Morgan focuses on a handful of objects from Austen’s life, and the commentary is thoughtful. I was surprised, though, to find myself thinking that had Twitter been around in Austen’s time (1775-1817), she would likely have been a fan.

Austen wrote more than 3,000 letters, many to her sister Cassandra. They corresponded constantly, starting new letters to each other the minute they finished the last one and sharing the minutia of their lives. From reading Austen’s novels, I’d always assumed that people in her era spent a long time waiting for the mail. But the show mentions that during Austen’s life, mail in London and environs was delivered six times a day. Sometimes, a letter sent in the morning was delivered the same evening. Which makes snail mail sound a lot more like email or twitttering.

The speed of mail at the time and the content of the Austen sisters’ letters suggest that the desires to communicate instantly and to let other people know what you ate for breakfast aren’t modern phenomenon. Of course, Twitter lets you share your soy milk-to-cereal ratio with strangers and thus adds a layer of publishing to our updates. But people today often assume that email, Twitter and other relatively instant communication media have created a slew of brand new communication behaviors. The Jane Austen show at the Morgan suggests just the opposite: our human patterns are surprisingly consistent, and technology evolves to meet us.

Incidentally, the show doesn’t say when multi-daily snail mail faded, and I wonder if it passed out of fashion with the rise of the telegraph in the mid-1800s. Anyone know?

Thank Web 2.0 Expo co-chair Brady Forrest (@brady) if you enjoyed the soundtrack to the conference keynotes. Besides the numerous tweets from the audience requesting song titles, we noticed a few of you tapping your toes and (as the kids would say) “rocking out” pre-talk in the keynote room.

Want to take these tunes home with you? Here you go:

Artist: Jon Margulies
Album: TOO BIG TO FAIL
Song: Hobotech Mix
Sounds like: Techno, bassy
Get it here

Artist: Richard Cheese
Album: Sunny Side of the Moon
Sounds like: Lounge singer meets Nirvana, NIN, Pink Floyd, etc
Get it here

Artist: The Kleptones
Album: A Night at the Hip-Hopera
Sounds like: Hip hop remixes
Get it here

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Kaitlin Pike is the Web 2.0 Expo community manager. She can be reached @w2e.

Enjoying all the great sessions and conversations at Web 2.0 Expo New York this year? Inspired to take the stage yourself? If so, you should submit a proposal for Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco 2010. The deadline is tomorrow!

From ideas through implementation, we’re looking for war stories, success stories, case studies, innovations and lessons learned. From startups to enterprises to independents, if you’re helping define the future of the Web, we want to hear from you.

Speaking at Web 2.0 Expo is great opportunity to put your ideas and projects in front of a savvy and connected audience. Submit a proposal today. Deadline for proposals is November 19 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

We’re looking for proposals for sessions and workshops in the following tracks:
•    Landscape & Strategy
•    Marketing & Community
•    Design & User Experience
•    Development
•    Web 2.0 at Work
•    Government 2.0
•    Mobile
•    Social Media

Need advice on how to write a successful speaking proposal? Check out our blog post detailing the “Dos and Don’ts” of winning submissions.

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Kaitlin Pike is the Community Manager of Web 2.0 Expo. She can be reached @w2e

A big thank you to the organizers of last night’s Ignite NYC, including Web 2.0 Expo co-chair Brady Forrest and Tikva Morowati.

For those of you unfamiliar with Ignite, here’s a brief description:

If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides which rotated after 15 seconds? Ignite captures the best of geek culture in a series of 5 minute speed presentations.

The speakers ranged from sewing fanatics to an arctic explorer - two groups you don’t typically see at the same event. Duncan Davidson took lots o’ pictures (including the one above), so be sure to look for yourself in the crowd shots!

We’ve pulled together from Twitter a few of the reactions about last night’s Ignite NYC to give you a taste of what went down. Feel free to leave your comments here about what you thought, or who you thought was the best presenter.

amyellisredux Really great #ignitenyc tonight. Exhausted but excited for tomorrow’s sessions and speakers. #w2e

mriggen I thought @ignitenyc KICKED BUTT tonight! Thanks and props to presenters and organizers. #w2e

toomz @quinnnorton Really liked what you said at #IgniteNYC “Take a truth + blurt it out.” #w2e

RayBeckerman One very cool presentation at the @ignitenyc event was by @leesan talking about design & about simplicity #w2e

cliffsmithstl @ignitenyc was awesome! You can’t beat a concentrated cluster of smart, interesting, inspiring people. #w2e #ignitenyc

imagineelection Loved #igniteNYC, especially “flat” and polar bears! But the event space was odd… #w2e should be hosted in a glass house, not a bunker.

Red_Banana Wonderful diversity of presenters tonight at @ignitenyc! And great presentations to boot. #w2e

manyas Viagra will get you to the North pole. Also, sticking your hands in someone elses groin will prevent frost bite. #ignitenyc #w2e

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Who’s ready for Web 2.0 Expo New York? A big high five to everyone who said “yes”… but if you’ve one of the unfortunate individuals who couldn’t make it, it’s okay, we have a nice treat for you:

We are livestreaming selected content here. That’s almost better than a high five.

The first broadcast will be on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. ET. Watch Tim O’Reilly welcome the Web 2.0 Expo New York community. Read our other post on livestreaming to find out what other types of events will be filmed and placed online.

And one other note about following Web 2.0 Expo New York from afar: The official hashtag is #w2e.

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Kaitlin Pike is the Community Manager of Web 2.0 Expo. She can be reached @w2e.