Stardust Global Ventures

For those of you whol will be attending VON.x next month in San Jose, please come join us as we join Jeff.

You are invited to join me at VONCamp (the unconference) at Spring 2008 VON.x

I am looking forward to co-hosting with Tom Howe VONCamp, our “Unconference” taking place March 18-19 during Spring 2008 VON.x in San Jose.

The Unconference is an innovative approach to events that enables participants to identify what THEY want to talk about, and organize themselves into groups to exchange the information THEY seek. I have enjoyed taking part in unconferences at both Kinnernet and PodCamp and I am glad to see us embrace the unconference concepts at VON.

The discussions that evolve during VONCamp will address a general set of topics identified by the participants — but the actual agenda will not be set until the event begins.

This dynamic and unfiltered format will provide a great opportunity for the people attending VONCamp to take part in active and open discussions around a wide variety of topics that matter the most to the people who will be there. At VONCamp we are looking forward to leveraging the collective expertise of the people in our audience. Joining me at VONCamp will be a number of the people who are also speaking at the VON.x conference.

At the moment there are twelve topics proposed by our community. This list is available at http://www.voncamp.net.

The Unconference approach is always charged with excitment. Here are the VONCamp Unconference Rules

1. There are no rules.
2. Everyone is equal. Everyone is a rockstar.
3. Give back to the conference by participating actively. “Active participation” might mean giving a presentation, helping with a presentation, blogging or podcasting the event, or whatever other creative ways. While everyone is encouraged to lead a session, there are only twelve slots available.
4. All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet – if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else. Hopefully you will walk the show floor!

I’m not sure we actually have twelve firm topics just yet, but knowing the people involved, we’ll have twenty by the time the week arrives. Here’s a list of what’s on tap right now on the wiki:

1. Recruiting the Web guys: How to create and grow your developer ecosystem – lead by Dave Nielsen (PayPal/StrikeIron etc..)
2. Facebook the perfect sandbox for applications – lead by Alec Saunders
3. Google’s Android; Where do we stand? – lead by Tom Howe
4. Business model mayhem.. Is there a VC or 2 or 3 in Silicon Valley willing to talk about this topic?- lead needed.
5. Will a US telco follow BTs lead with APIs?
6. Rethinking Broadband Internet Connectivity – lead by Brough Turner. Look at the image on Rethinking Broadband Internet Connectivity.
7. Does AWS, Google, Microsoft, or someone else provide all the application layer infrastructure that is needed?
8. Can Telephony Be Free? Lead by Gene Cohen, VoodooVox.
9. Is there any benefit on connecting Social Networks via telecom networks? If not, why? If so, how? – Arjun Roychowdhury (HSC)
10. Topic to be announced later – Ken Camp – http://stardustglobalventures.com
11. Unified Communication; do we have the technology for business? – Paul Sijben (Perzonae) – Great topic. Count me in (Ken Camp) – http://www.realtime-unifiedcommunications.com

As always, VON is going to be a fantastic venue with some real insight into what lies ahead in the industry, Beyond that, it’s always charged with excitement and activity. Sheryl and I are really looking forward to it.

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