Web 2.0 Conference Unveils 2005 Program Agenda

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2005--

"Revving the Web" Theme to be Addressed Through Interactive Discussions, High-Level Interviews, Workshops and Presentations

“At the Web 2.0 Conference a year ago, we gathered to discuss the implications of the Web becoming a platform. This year, we're taking it further, focusing not just on declaring the platform, but showing where the innovation is happening and what we might expect in the coming year”

O'Reilly Media, Inc. and MediaLive International, Inc. today jointly announced the program agenda for the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference, the second generation Internet business conference that brings together leading Internet industry figures and companies to focus on innovation and technology developments spanning the Internet, communication and entertainment industries. The 2005 Web 2.0 Conference will take place October 5-7 at the Argent Hotel in San Francisco.

Segments at this year's Web 2.0 Conference will include interactive, high-level conversations with some of the industry's giants, including:

-- Mark Cuban, Owner, Dallas Mavericks; Co-Founder and Chairman-HDNet

-- Barry Diller, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp, and Chairman of Expedia, Inc.

-- Shawn Fanning, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, SNOCAP and Founder, Napster

-- Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Business Development, Google Inc.

-- Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

-- Yusuf Mehdi, SVP, MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division, Microsoft

-- Jonathan Miller, Chairman & CEO, AOL

-- Pierre Omidyar, Founder and Chairman, eBay and CEO, Omidyar Network

-- Ray Ozzie, Founder, Groove Networks; Incoming CTO, Microsoft

-- Terry Semel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! Inc.

-- Werner Vogels, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Amazon.com.

"At the Web 2.0 Conference a year ago, we gathered to discuss the implications of the Web becoming a platform. This year, we're taking it further, focusing not just on declaring the platform, but showing where the innovation is happening and what we might expect in the coming year," said John Battelle, Web 2.0 Program Chair. "Web 2.0 attendees will be immediately plugged into the ecosystem of the new Internet and allowed to make connections vital to their business strategy."

"OutCast Communications is proud to be a part of Web 2.0 along with the Web's hottest companies, most innovative technologies and most interesting conversations," said Caryn Marooney, co-founder, OutCast. "Web 2.0 is the place to meet today's movers, makers and shakers."

More than a dozen extraordinary thinkers and business leaders will share thoughts, ideas and new technologies in the Show Me, High Order Bit and UI Minute conference segments. "Show Me" will focus on showing something attendees might know to be possible, but have not experienced before. "High Order Bits" are 10-minute stand-and-deliver presentations, while "UI Minute" will be short, minutes-long visual presentations that highlight innovations in web interface and design.

After one full day of in-depth workshops, Program Chair John Battelle and O'Reilly Media, Inc. CEO Tim O'Reilly will kick off two days of sessions, led by more than 50 innovators and entrepreneurs presenting the most interesting and challenging new approaches to Internet business in a focused format that encourages a high level of audience participation. Additional sessions and speakers include:

Trialogue: The Future of Entertainment

Mark Cuban, Owner, Dallas Mavericks; Co-Founder and Chairman, HDNet
Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix
Evan Williams, Co-Founder, Odeo

Discussion: Can Open Source Stay Open?

Mitchell Baker, President, Mozilla Foundation
Tim O'Reilly, Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Jonathan Schwartz, President and Chief Operating Officer, Sun 
Microsystems, Inc.

Discussion: Open vs. Closed Models

Danny Rimer, Partner, Index Ventures
Werner Vogels, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Amazon.com

Discussion: Gaming

Greg Ballard, CEO, Glu Mobile
Mike Cassidy, co-founder and CEO of Xfire, Direct Hit, and Stylus
Innovation Raph Koster, Chief Creative Officer, Sony Online 
Entertainment
Mark Stevens, Partner, Fenwick & West

Music Session

Shawn Fanning, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, SNOCAP
Musician to be Announced

From the Labs

Gene Becker, Director, Utility Services Initiative, Hewlett Packard 
Laboratories
Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer and Sr. Vice President, Yahoo!
Prabhakar Raghavan, Head of Yahoo! Research

The Alumni Report

Joe Kraus, Co-founder & CEO, JotSpot
Kim Polese, CEO, SpikeSource

Online Content: the Prosumer Business

Mark Fletcher, Founder & CEO, Bloglines
Rich Skrenta, Topix
Mena Trott, President, Six Apart

In addition, Web 2.0 workshops will address open questions and explore the latest developments in a variety of topics. Each workshop will be led by a moderator with expertise in the workshop topic. Workshops include:

-- Analyzing Data On The Move For The Next Era of Web 2.0

-- Applications 2.0: Ajax And Beyond (The Business Case)

-- AttentionTrust: First Board Meeting and Discussion (Open to All)

-- Building a Developer EcoSystem

-- From Community to Commerce: The Arrival of Podcasting

-- Identity 2.0: Identity Protocols, Today & Tomorrow

-- LAUNCHPAD: A Dozen New Companies Launched in One Sitting

-- Marketing to the "Echo Boomers"

-- Mashups 2.0: Where's the Business Model?

-- Open Source Infrastructure

-- Search By Another Name: New Ideas in Search

-- Search Technology in the Enterprise

-- Strategic Blogging: Avoiding Death by Opinion

-- VC 2.0: An Entrepreneur's Market?

-- Video 2.0: When and How Will It Come?

-- Web 2.0 Ad Models: A New Approach to Marketing?

-- What's New in the Search Ecosystem: Users, Publishers and Advertisers

-- What's in a Tag?

"Revving the Web" is the theme for the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference, reflecting the conviction that the web is being transformed into a new application and business platform. Web 2.0 will explore four key topics (computing and operating systems, media and entertainment, communications and mobile, and 'fun and inspiration') through short individual presentations, high-level interviews and lively panel discussions - all with ample time for audience participation and Q&A.

MediaLive International and O'Reilly Media are partnering again this year to produce this event along with Conference Chair John Battelle. O'Reilly Media is the premier information source for leading-edge computer technologies, and MediaLive International, Inc. produces the world's top technology events, and many other major expositions, conferences, and custom events. More information on Web 2.0 workshops, sessions, speakers and special events will be announced in the months ahead. For more information about Web 2.0 Conference, visit www.web2con.com.

About the Web 2.0 Conference

The Web 2.0 Conference is an exclusive thought-leader gathering focusing on emerging technologies and innovation on the Web. This conference brings together the brightest minds and broadest thinkers in the space, each of whom shares the belief that the Web has emerged as a solid business platform. The event reviews the current landscape, what is on the horizon and why this information matters to the "business geek." It crosses a variety of industries and will be a meeting ground for the influencers that share the common outlook that the Internet offers extraordinary opportunities for innovation in products, services and business models. Web 2.0 Conference will take place October 5-7, 2005 at the Argent Hotel in San Francisco, and will be produced by MediaLive International, Inc. and O'Reilly Media, Inc.

About MediaLive International, Inc.

MediaLive International connects companies to the markets they serve through media properties, software tools and marketing solutions that educate buying communities, deepen relationships between buyers and sellers, and fuel market growth. MediaLive International's media brands encompass the IT industry's largest and most well-respected exhibitions, including Interop(R), VoiceCon(R), Next Generation Networks(R), the Web 2.0(R) Conference, Seybold Seminars(R), COMDEX(R), the Collaboration Technologies Conference, Mobile Business Expo, GTEC(SM) and respected publications including Business Communications Review(R) and The Seybold Report(R). The Wingate Studios division delivers the industry's leading end-to-end event management software platform WingateWeb and professional services -- including strategic planning, technical integration, analytics and event programming -- that help companies produce their own live marketing programs.

MediaLive International is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information about MediaLive International, visit www.medialiveinternational.com.

About O'Reilly Media, Inc.

O'Reilly Media, Inc. is the premier information source for leading-edge computer technologies. The company's books, conferences, and web sites bring to light the knowledge of technology innovators. O'Reilly books, known for the animals on their covers, occupy a treasured place on the shelves of the developers building the next generation of software. O'Reilly conferences and summits including the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference; the MySQL Users Conference, co-presented with MySQL AB; and the Where 2.0 Conference bring alpha geeks and forward-thinking business leaders together to shape the revolutionary ideas that spark new industries. From the Internet to XML, open source, .NET, Java technology, and web services, O'Reilly puts technologies on the map. For more information about O'Reilly Media, Inc. visit www.oreilly.com.