The current “Emerging Technology” conference evolved out of the “Peer-to-Peer” conference.

This isn’t a forum where you will be seeing quantum computing and far-future theorizing, but about iterative technology taking next steps.

Makers of the X-Box (and other electronic equipment) seal the box and cover the screws with tape as if to keep the magic in. But the real magic happens when you open it…

Why remixing/make/modding now? Mass amateurization has lead to the “prosumer”. We’re 20 years into the PC era. Given enough eyeballs, all features are obvious. [i.e. we've moved further into the bell curve of adoption and use] The advent of the lazyweb. The gospel of openness.

Why “remixing” rather than “hacking”? Hacking as sampling. There is a kind of thrill of combinatorics and magic. Remixing is less individual and more conversational.

Remixing in action:

  • Remix the web: view source, Firefox, Javascript/Ajax, Desktop integration
  • Remix your music: customers were trying to tell the industry something… the industry wasn’t listening. The industry was/is trying to tell customers something… they weren’t listening. Apple was listening.
  • Remix your TV: Any night can be “Thursday Night.” The 30 sec. skip. Tivo is open. Networks invent “off by one minute’– Tivo adds a second receiver.
  • Remix your network: Apple untethered the laptop. Commodity hardware made it cheap. Wifi hackers untethered everything else. Hotspots are everywhere. [in the real world]
  • Remix your movies: Bittorrent scares everyone and motivates offerings like video on demand. The Netflix effect scares Blockbuster, et al.
  • Remix your data: screen scraping begat XML begat the API. Hacks lead to standards lead to opportunities.
  • Remix your text: “I’m Blogging This!” Blogging’s interaction with journalism. Nice Clay Shirky quote: Travelocity doesn’t make everyone a travel agent.
  • Remix syndication: RSS allowed My Netscape to compete with Yahoo, now RSS is feeding back into Yahoo.
  • Remix your bookshelf: Bezos says “Important knowledge is locked up in paper.” [information just wants to be freeeee!] Project Gutenberg, Google Print, O’Reilly Safari-U
  • Remix IT: a slew of specialists are replacing the generalists. Hacks lead to frameworks which have lead to foundations. The raw material really does grow on trees.
  • Remix the Browser: Firefox hits the sweet spot with IT folks, with the family sysadmin, and with grandma.
  • Remix Brick and Mortar: The “Circling of Packages” as Amazon allows searching of meatspace, virtual shopping, physical delivery or in-store pickup.
  • Remix Space!: Bert Rutan and “Spaceship One”

Ends on a fitting note by George Bernard Shaw:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

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