* Content Exchange *
Back at the conference the next day, Tuesday, September 12, I heard
eXitSource's CEO Ron Peterson moderate a panel on "Content
Exchange." In response to what makes the best travel content,
GORP.com's CEO Jon Guttenberg stated, "make it informative,
entertaining and inspiring." Their most popular section is "Sex in
the Woods." VirtualTourist.com's CEO J.R. Johnson cited that
depending on the user, different sites will offer the best content
based on their interests. Club Intrawest's Web Envisioneer Craig
Oliver quoted a Cnet correspondent and simply stated, "give your
customers what they want, not what you think they need." Vicinity
Corporation's VP and GM syndication stated that "niche sites are
valuable that provide value to a specific target."
The discussion centered largely on personalization features when
Peterson asked, "What's going to make people spend money online?"
All agreed that syndication of content is a good way to get content
out on as many different sites as possible.
* Voice on the Net *
After enough travel talk, I headed over to Cobb Galleria on the
other side of town, for NY-based Jeff Pulver's Voice on the Net
conference. In contrast to the travel show, this event was a full-
blown Miller Freeman, major-player conference. After registering, I
was dazzled by the sheer volume of booths and people and voice-over
telephony experts! I was also impressed with how Pulver.com's grown
their operation. Taking a speed-walk through the football field, I
stopped by DeltaThree.com and saw Sharon Tolpin, formerly of
Solbright. Broadband Gateways was exhibiting their "evolo" unit,
which brings intelligent voice, data, wireless and broadband
services into the home, small businesses and SOHO operations.
Firetalk, TeleGeography, Eriksson, Lucent and Sonus all had booths
ranging from modest to massive. Quicknet Technologies had a luxe
Internet Jack booth and a squishy-yoyo as a toy handout. LA, CA and
Seoul-Korea-based Telinker showcased its scalable technologies, and
I got to chat with Niederwangen, Switzerland-headquartered Inalps's
Alexandra Hebeissen and Bangladore, India-based Encore Software's P
S Prakash. Hertfordshire, UK-based e-go messaging's Mark Popkiewicz
explained their services to me in my mad dash around, and Voxeo was
showcasing its phone-activated XML tutorials. Pulver.com got the
standard splashy party too -- Lucent Technologies hosted a deluxe
party of Egyptian Wonders -- a night of ancient fantasy at the Fox
Theater on Tuesday night.
