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| Despite it being a weekend morning, a lively crowd gathered in force at the NTUC Centre auditorium for Nexus 2007 |
It was a lively crowd that gathered at the NTUC Centre on Marina Boulevard on a quiet Saturday morning on 24 March 2007. Ranging from young professionals to seasoned veterans in the infocomm industry, as well as a smattering of fresh graduates from the various local universities and learning institutes, the group packed into the auditorium for a unique conference and networking event – Nexus 2007.
Organised by The Digital Movement, Nexus 2007 aimed to discuss fundamental changes that are happening in business and technology, including Web 2.0, citizen journalism, mobile web explosion, open source communities, and globalization. The setting was informal and the discussions jovial but serious, which was unusual for any technology-based conference event. The morning kicked off with a energetic presentation by Nathan Torkington, a spokesperson from O'Reily Radar and Perl Foundation Board Member, who touched on the birth and development of Web 2.0, as well as the current tools available now for Web 2.0.
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| Nathan Torkington from O’Reilly Radar kicked off the morning’s discussion with a spirited presentation of how Web 2.0 evolved, what lies ahead and the importance of Open Source |
The future of technology and the next generation Internet were major topics that were being discussed in some depth, with different sessions breaking out for different interest groups. Among the various panels were a host of prominent industry figures, including Mr Saw Ken Wye, Vice President of Microsoft Asia Pacific, Mr Steve Russell, President & CEO of SalesForce.com Asia Pacific, Mr Walter Lee, Vice President of IDC Asia Pacific and Mr Girija P. Pande, Head of Asia-Pacific, Tata Consultancy Services. The speakers provided their personal experiences and insights as to how new platforms, technologies, and business models are forming the basis of future web and mobile applications.
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| Mr Saw Ken Wye Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Asia Pacific Region, Microsoft Operations Pte Ltd, described how he first started his career in the IT sector, and how things have changed since, at the 1st panel discussion |
While the topics were diverse, the mood was enthusiastic and spirited. Manas Gupta, a veteran of similar events held in Silicon Valley when he was working there, noted in his blog that the event had a "stellar line up of speakers" and the atmosphere made him feel like he was back in the Valley. The panels lasted throughout the day, with thought provoking and often extensive discussions on opportunities behind Web 2.0, citizen journalism, globalization, and the mobile web explosion. Other topics included the business realities of the Internet space today, citizen blogging power (exemplified by the "live blogging" feedback to panelists), privacy issues, managed media content and software distribution and even the concept of the "future-web", a notion coined by Mr Andreas Weigend, former Chief Scientist of Amazon.com.
Laptops were very much on display everywhere as participants made use of wireless Internet access available at the auditorium to blog "live" about their own comments and ideas as well as post photos up ‘live’ for viewing. It was online interactivity at its best, with most of the participants staying back late in the evening for a light-hearted networking session.
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