Tim O'Reilly explains the Cloud

Here's Tim O'Reilly on the future of Cloud computing and the "Internet of Things," speaking at the MySQL CE 2010 conference." As Bruce Sterling sez, "It looks like he's just telling disconnected alpha-geek anecdotes, in his customary, avuncular, visionary fashion. What Tim's really doing is throwing lit matches into his network. And boy is he the guru when it comes to doing that."

O'Reilly MySQL CE 2010: Tim O'Reilly, "O'Reilly Radar" (via Beyond the Beyond)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

I stopped the video when he claimed we had to get our minds around the unknown future technology.
Obviously he was begging for help, and hadn’t a clue.
Not surprising, when his stated premise was it is so wondrous we cannot imagine what is to come.
Condolences to the audience members.
khanom

As an audience member, I have to say: maybe you had to be there.

He might ramble a bit, but if you step back and think about it in broad terms, it was actually a pretty interesting keynote.
mpedson

For what I spend my days doing and thinking about (Web and New Media strategy for a big, old, federally funded museum/research complex) this talk was both useful (in a practical sense) and inspiring. The “throwing lit matches” metaphor is apt. Thanks for posting it Cory!
Anonymous

Imagine a really big network, of tubes…
mneptok

I was at the conference, and what struck me was Tim’s assertion that, “The data is what’s important, not the database,” (paraphrased).

If the data is so important, doesn’t that highlight how incredibly important the database is? In my mind, it’s like saying, “The money is what’s important. Don’t worry about the solvency of the bank in which you store it,” or somesuch.

Tim addressed how a future Internet controlled by a single entity is rather frightening. A future Internet with many companies competing, but only using a single, proprietary database or data format is equally frightening.

At least to me.
5ynic

@mneptok #5
Yes, it does highlight how incredibly important the DB is, but I guess the difference is (subsets and supersets of the) data can be in many DBs at the same time, whereas your money is lost if your bank tanks.
I wasn’t an attendee, but wish I was – I was hooked.
Xenu

Disconnected alpha-geek anecdotes…. huh? Mr. Sterling needs to quit trying to be clever, he just comes out muffled.