It's finally the big day: Facebook will make a major announcement Thursday regarding the news feed for the first time since the feature launched in 2006.
Early rumblings indicate we could see multiple news feeds based on categories, such as Instagram photos, friends' music listening habits and artist updates. Also in the rumor mill are larger photos and image-based ads.
It's January. You read Twitter and The Blogs and have a vague recollection of every major news outlet in the country sending some poor reporter to Las Vegas this month, every year, to stand in a convention center and talk about technology. This is CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. But it's more than just a collection of gadgets.
The events world is getting really stale, but it is showing a new spring of innovation that in many respects mirrors the enterprise and its own paradox of sluggishness and fresh perspectives.
The big trade events and user conferences do have their merit. They provide an opportunity to get the user perspective and insights into the byzantine labyrinth of legacy software suites that so many customers still depend on. But the well spring of innovation is best discovered at events that focus on developers. These are mid-to-small-sized events that give you the chance to talk to developers and learn what is happening on the front lines of technology development.
We are coming to the end of the year so hopefully you can plan ahead to attend at least one of the 10 events below. This is not a definitive list — I am sure there are several others that have merit. Please use the comments to add ones you would recommend attending.
This is strange. Apple's CEO Tim Cook and Apple's CFO Peter Oppenheimer will host a special conference tomorrow. The topic: "the outcome of the Company's discussions concerning its cash balance." That's $100,000 million in cash, people. They can buy bloody Walmart.
Yahoo's president of Americas, Ross Levinsohn, will speak at a press conference early Monday morning to announce some as-of-yet undisclosed news.
We'll be there!
Our guess is this is not a press conference to announce a Hulu purchase, a new CEO, or a Yahoo buyer.
We're guess the news will be that Yahoo is forming a coalition with AOL and Microsoft to sell all of their remnant inventory together.
Facebook announced some major changes to their platform yesterday. Many of these changes are enormous leaps in technology. Many of these changes will result in brand new behaviors. Many of these changes will revolutionize industries.
I have honestly given up fighting it. Facebook, you win.
I took a serious break from speaking after last year’s SXSW, because we’ve got a ton of great stuff coming to you from Copyblogger Media this fall. I needed to keep focused on delivering well ahead of those impending launch dates.
But as summer ends and fall kicks in, you can always find me speaking at a few select conferences. This post will let you know where I’ll be and how to save money when attending.
