Free Web 2.0-to-English translation
The big brains presenting at tomorrow's Web 2.0 Summit have lots of good ideas. Too bad no one can understand what they're saying. I've got a plan to fix that.
Here's a typical email from one presenter:
Just make sure Owen Thomas knows what we do and doesn't mistake us for a SNS that is offered directly to end-users! We offer up a 'meta-network' engine - so in fact folks can run their OWN entire Ning."
SNS? Meta-network engine? Ning? I'm offering a free Web 2.0-to-English translation service for all presenters, panelists and sponsors at the Web 2.0 Summit.
Here's how it works:
- You send me (paul@valleywag.com) a summary of your onstage presentation or booth demo. Include a phone number for questions.
- I'll post a jargon-free rewrite of it.
For example, Marc Canter's PeopleAggregator — described in the email above — comes in two forms. The easy version is an online service that lets customers click to build their own social network-y sites, such as the Poker Players Alliance. More Web-savvy techies and organizations can run PeopleAggregator software on their own servers. Sample customers: GT Channel, Let's Cricket, and the Dell/Intel Extreme Gaming Tour.
Marc's 8:30 a.m. workshop, Open Data, will focus on getting Web 2.0 online services to allow customers to move their data around among different sites as they see fit. For example, I've spent two years building my linkedIn profile and network. Why can't I automatically import all that info to Facebook, the way I imported my Internet Explorer bookmarks into Firefox? It turns out, Marc says, that linkedIn lets me save my info to an easily read file format, but Facebook isn't set up to read it yet. Sounds like a killer app in the waiting.
It's like tech reporting, but in English! Who's next? (Warning to publicists: The one word I don't understand is "embargo.")