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Friday, June 15, 2007

Welcome to D5 Highlights

Find out what happened at D5 by reviewing these posts, transcripts and video clips that were posted live during the conference.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Intentional Software Founder and Space Tourist Charles Simonyi

Charles Simonyi

As if managing the development of Microsoft Word and Excel in the 1980s wasn’t a good enough item for his resume, Charles Simonyi has just made a trip to, uh, outer space. Yes, he is one of the first space tourists, having spent 11 days on board the International Space Station just last month. He will tell us all about it.

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QiGO Internet Content Key

This is a key-shaped USB device that launches a specific Web site when plugged into a computer. It allows a user on a shared computer (i.e., at the office or in the home) to connect to a Web site and not have to worry about leaving any trace of activity. Think: no more annoying telltales from video-game or teen celebrity sites. Also, no worries about browsing porn or other adult-content destinations, because the QiGO can link users to age-appropriate sites without anyone else being able to see the content accidentally or monitor what had been accessed.

qigo2.JPG

Everything goes on the keylike device’s memory, billed as being smart (for connecting users to a predetermined online destination), secure (for linking users to predetermined, private content) and dynamic (because an infinite amount of content can be unlocked without taxing the memory of the QiGO device).

“Our goal was to make the Internet tangible and intuitive while eliminating user names, passwords and PINs,” said Dan Klitsner, co-founder of QiGO.

QiGO technology has already been used with Konami’s online trading-card game, Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as Hasbro’s Net Jet online game system. It has also been licensed to Fisher Price for use in preschool toys that will connect children to gated versions of existing children’s Web sites.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Eric Schmidt

Along with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt has built Google into a colossus that not only continues to dominate search, but now also rules Web video and advertising. Since D4 ended, he has overseen Google’s acquisition of both the top video site, YouTube, and the best-known Web banner ad-placement company, DoubleClick. So, is Google a technology company, an advertising company, a media company, or some new hybrid?

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TRANSCRIPT–Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at D5

Following is a transcript of the interview Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg conducted with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the D5 conference on May 30, 2007.

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RealPlayer 11 - Rip/Save/Burn

Remember Harmony? It was a RealNetworks utility that Real hoped would enable it to infiltrate Apple’s music empire by allowing consumers to play songs purchased at Real’s download store on the iPod. And it got the company in a lot of trouble with Apple.

That episode, and Real’s penchant for developing tech that annoys the heck out of other businesses, comes to mind today as RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser takes the stage to demo RealPlayer 11, which enables one-click downloading of online videos from thousands of Web sites, as well as the ability to organize them and even burn them to DVD and CD.

real_dailyshow_button.jpg

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Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman

Philippe Dauman

According to Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, traffic to Viacom-owned sites has surged since the company asked YouTube to remove its content. “We found that when we sent out the take-down notice to YouTube … we found traffic increasing back to our own sites,” he said earlier this year at the Bear Stearns Media Conference. “We are able to monetize that increased traffic; this is high-value traffic. The premium-branded advertisers aren’t, in my opinion, going to spend a lot of money for the YouTube viewers who are looking at the user-generated content of a cat going to the bathroom.”

Dauman, who sees little promotional value in having snippets of Viacom programs posted to YouTube, feels the company is entitled to advertising revenues tied to viewing of its programming. He should have some interesting things to say about the interview with YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen that preceded him.

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Stephen Colbert Comedy Central Intro for Philippe Dauman

Stephen Colbert’s terrific intro for Viacom President and CEO, Philippe “Dough Man” Dauman.

Earlier, we posted this video, then took it down and then put it back up. Confused?

Our fault and not Viacom’s at all.

We posted it first, because we thought Viacom had given us the rights to post it (and also Dauman said we could in our interview today onstage). But while checking to make sure with Viacom PR, one of our staffers at the D conference misunderstood and thought we had to remove the video. So we did.

But, to be clear, Viacom never asked us to remove the video and it is now back up here. Thanks Philippe! Thanks Mr. Colbert!

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YouTube Founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley

To our industry, YouTube is a bright-shiny object.”

–Anonymous media executive, 2006 Digital Hollywood conference

When rumors of a YouTube acquisition began to circulate in 2006, conventional wisdom had it that the company was a bad case of buyer’s remorse waiting to happen, a start-up whose business model seemed to be built from the ground up on liabilities. As entrepreneur Mark Cuban once said, “Only a moron would buy YouTube.”

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YouTube Introductory Video

The video used to introduce YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley.

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Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore

Ann Moore

I am only here for another three years. I am going to be known for transforming Time Inc. For diversifying Time Inc. And I am going to be the person who leads the transformation, to make sure we are around for another 80 years.”

Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore, Feb. 12, 2007

As Chairman and CEO of Time Inc., Ann Moore has been responsible for modernizing the iconic magazine publisher amid an ugly downturn in print advertising revenue and increasingly acute competition from the Internet. But that’s no easy task.The publisher is still playing catch-up in the digital arena. And the struggle to translate the huge trove of Time content into influential digital products is one that may well take longer than the three years Moore posits.

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Ann Moore Introductory Video

The video used to introduce Ann Moore, chairman and CEO, Time Inc.

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Jill Sobule performs at D5, Part 4

Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule performs onstage on the final day of D5 in Carlsbad, Calif.

Wednesday Nightcap and Science Fair Photos

Photos from Wednesday night’s festivities following the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates joint interview.

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VIDEO: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Highlight Reel

A selection of rip-roaring laughs and jokes from the joint interview between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at the D5 conference.

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Next Up at D5

That's a wrap! See you next year at D6!


... This is going to be the best D ever.”

— Gordon Crovitz, Publisher, The Wall Street Journal

About D5

D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way.

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