The future of the social web: And how to stop it

There are interesting forces at work that are shaping the contours of the social web. The decisions and technologies that are created now and in the next several years will, in large part, determine whether the future of the web will remain open to tinkers and hackers alike, or become a very different kind of environment — more like TV and less like the web we’ve known.

This talk will examine emerging trends in social networks, speaking to changes in computing interfaces that spell out different consumer expectations of what computers should do and how they should be used, and will consider various technologies that may yet prevent the demise of the nascent free and open social web.

Presenter(s)

Chris Messina is a well-known advocate of the open web, starting as a leader of the community marketing of the launch of the popular Firefox web browser in 2004. He is a board member of the OpenID and Open Web Foundations, and plays an instrumental role in advancing OAuth and safer online computing. A frequent speaker at technology conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo and SXSW, he has been quoted in The New York Times, Business Week, LA Times, Washington Post, ReadWriteWeb, and Wired.

In 2008, Chris received the Google Open Source Award recognizing his community work on initiatives like microformats. He also co-founded the coworking and BarCamp communities, and is credited with introducing hashtags on Twitter.

He currently works at Google as an Open Web Advocate.