We’re very glad to have Tenni Theurer, Senior Product Manager in Yahoo!’s Search Distribution group, presenting Coding for Greener Applications: Style Makes a Difference at Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco. Tenni also participates in the company’s Green Coding Initiative.

Her presentation will happen on Friday, April 3 at 11:00 a.m., and it straddles both the Development and Fundamentals tracks.

Tenni was kind enough to take some time from her busy schedule to answer a few of my questions:

Your Web 2.0 Expo presentation is “Coding for Greener Applications.” What motivated you to speak about this particular topic? What would you like attendees to take away from it?
Everyone is doing green these days as people are becoming more aware about the impact of their carbon footprints. I joined Yahoo!’s Green Coding Initiative early last year because I wanted to make an effort towards a greener planet and help fight global warming. The Green Coding Initiative aims to define the meaning of coding efficiently, determine the metrics to measure efficient code, develop the tools that enable developers to code greener, and share our learnings with the world. This was also a natural extension from my previous role as an evangelist for exceptional performance.

The key takeaways from this session are to measure the impact of your applications, to invest in making your code more efficient, and to inspire others to do the same. The technologies to produce clean renewable energy exist, but they are expensive and hard to find. Thus we need to optimize our backend data centers and our applications. In order to do that, we have to measure and measure effectively. Unfortunately, there aren’t industry standards or many tools to gather these important measurements. It’s going to take a lot of smart and creative minds working together to establish these standards, develop the technologies, and design our applications to be more efficient.

Are you seeing any particular Web 2.0 or other tech trends emerging, particularly in response to the slowing economy?
Current technology trends have been around software and social networks. We are just now starting to see more gadgets and every day appliances tied to the web. Microsoft unveiled an internet-enabled coffee maker at CES this year, which allows consumers to enjoy a cup of coffee while getting the weather report, stock ticker and local traffic alerts. I recently received a scale that connects to the Internet. Every time I step on this scale, it measures my weight and uploads the information to an online application where I can set my goals, receive alerts, and view the data in various chart formats. Making data objects accessible from traditional offline devices opens the door for a whole new trend of web-enabled devices.

In response to the slowing economy, companies will also look for more ways to reduce their operating costs. One area they will find the savings is within their data centers’ energy usage and server capacity. Innovations in the past have focused around the processor, but new improvements are moving towards power supply efficiency, memory consumption, virtualization, and data storage.

Does the conference theme, “The Power of Less,” resonate with you in any way?
“The Power of Less” certainly resonates with me. In the case of energy-efficient code, it means using fewer cycles for the same result and reducing carbon emissions at the same time. Determine the parts of an application that is required and eliminate unnecessary code. Not only can this create a “greener application,” it can also significantly improve performance for your users.

How do you think the new political administration will affect the tech industry?
I think the new administration will have a positive impact on the tech industry. It’s great to see the government taking advantage of technology, especially during this past election year. All the major candidates used social networks such as Facebook and MySpace to reach out to voters and inform supporters about events, activities, and issues. It also gives our elected officials a chance to communicate and have a dialogue with the people they represent. We watched with a sense of amazement when change.gov redirected to whitehouse.gov, a site fully equipped with a blog, search capabilities, and even an RSS feed! The tech savvy Obama administration certainly increases awareness of the technology sector and the important role that it plays.

Any emerging technologies out there piquing your interest?
Cloud computing offers some really interesting ideas and opportunities. As cloud computing matures, companies no longer have to buy the hardware and space to store their data. It’s infinitely scaleable and paying for usage offers the flexibility to meet changing demands and conditions, especially through factors such as seasonality ties and corporate downsizings.  

Where do you get your news and other information?
I get almost all my news and information from online resources. Among the tech sites are Techmeme, Techcrunch, O’Reilly Radar, Slashdot, and Ajaxian. I keep up with the daily news by reading the Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC, and receiving aggregated headlines from Google News. I occasionally browse the San Jose Mercury for local news and follow a number of blogs from industry experts as well as current and former colleagues. Finally, I’m a huge fan of Wikipedia.

What are you favorite communication tools?
I bought the first generation iPhone the day it came out to analyze its performance characteristics and write a blog about our findings. It soon became one of my favorite gadgets, especially for communication and staying connected. I was never a big fan of SMS with any of my previous phones. It took too long to type and the auto-text often left me sending messages with “of” instead of “me” or “find” instead of “fine.” I also didn’t have a data package with earlier phones so I couldn’t check email or browse the web. With the iPhone, I found that I was sending more short messages and checking email almost religiously. I’m also a big fan of Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn, and of course the good old-fashioned telephone.

How did you get where you are today?
I grew up within the close proximity of Silicon Valley during the high tech boom. My father was the owner of a small business, and I watched my father adjust his business to reflect the ever changing tides of technology fads and needs. I remember making frequent visits to Fry’s Electronics in its early days when it was just one small warehouse in Sunnyvale, CA. I learned early on that business models have to constantly evolve and adapt in order to survive the competitive landscape.

Growing up with an early exposure to business and technology significantly increased my interest in both of these areas. I obtained a Bachelor’s in Computer Science at UC San Diego to understand the fundamentals and theory of computation in computer systems and subsequently took positions in engineering divisions within the technology industry. In an industry that changes at lightning speed, I find it extremely important to keep up with current trends, new technologies, and emerging business markets.