I watched two of the panel videos from the 2008 Web 2.0 summit. The first was a discussion about the future of music, and the second covered tracking methods created for use with mobile devices. The theme I found present in both discussions was the business to business partnership model currently being used to provide services to customers. Businesses that were once thought to be unrelated or competitive in the past are forming partnerships to promote products and services because more and more businesses are creating specialized products and require others to market them to turn a profit.

A conversation on the future of music

Participants
John Battelle, Federated Media Publishing, moderator
Chris DeWolfe, MySpace
Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music Group

This panel focused on the future of music and new media technologies. DeWolfe and Bronfman discussed the recent partnership of Warner Music Group and MySpace, which allows MySpace to carry more titles that users can access, as well as sell music. Users benefit because they become the “curators” of their personalized play-lists. MySpace benefits by providing a service other social networks do not, and Warner benefits by selling music and promoting its artists.

Bronfman also discussed his view that iTunes and MySpace are not competitors. He says the attraction of MySpace revolves around a networked community, whereas the Apple Store simply allows for the purchase of products. The community makes all the difference!



Track Me

Participants
Brady Forrest, O'Reilly Media, Inc., moderator
Greg Skibiski, Sense Networks
Ted Morgan, Skyhook Wireless
April Allderdice, MicroEnergy Credits
Rich Miner, Google

Participants on this panel talked about how apps are becoming more prevalent in mobile devices, and how the lure of many new technologies revolves around the ability of those devices to provide information on user-location. Wi-fi and satellite tracking have become highly-demanded features in mobile devices. And, the need for consumers to buy “smart phones” is no longer necessary, as long as carriers provide access to the services for which consumers’ devices have the capacity to run. iPhone was sited as one example where the user market has been seriously restricted because Apple decided to limit availability of the product to only one service provider.