[kNews] WWW2006 roundup - a great success...

[kNews <k-news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All,

WWW2006 was a really great event for our wee Kendra Initiative. There was 
an underlying sense that people really wanted to make the world a better 
place. Hence, the project received incredible exposure and press coverage 
and, furthermore, it got people dancing. Many thanks to all of you that 
made it possible...
 

1. The Ceilidh
2. Presentations at WWW2006
3. Press for Kendra Initiative
4. Thanks to our Sponsors
5. Next Year in Banff

1. THE CEILIDH

We had over a hundred people attend the WWW2006 Media Industry Special 
Event (aka Ceilidh) on the eve of Monday 22nd May ( 
http://www2006.org/events/ ) and it was great fun, with fine food and an 
unstoppable band! Many thanks to Google, BCSWomen, Women@CL for funding our 
reverie.
 

I took some photos that don't do the event justice - I was too busy dancing 
with everyone else! ;-)
 
http://www.flickr.com/search/people/?q=dahacouk

If you have any photos of the event (that you've published somewhere 
public) then let me have the URL and I'll let everyone know.
 

2. PRESENTATIONS AT WWW2006

Many thanks to all the Kendra invited speakers. We had some really vibrant 
sessions. The music session was especially interesting with Paul Jessop 
providing a bit more depth on the whole DRM debate, while Scott Cohen and 
Guy McCreery gave their individual perspectives on content distribution. 
Thanks to Philip Haggar we have it all taped and hope to have these videos 
up soon.  
 

I was invited to sit on a specially arranged panel session called "Freeing 
the Data". The idea has great implications to content owners controlling 
their content and data about their content (metadata). I'm told there is a 
video of this session too, which I look forward to seeing. In the meantime, 
you can read a little about it here:
 
http://www.windley.com/archives/2006/05/free_the_data.shtml

A last minute change to the WWW2006 programme on Friday gave me the 
opportunity to share a panel with Myles MacBean (Vice President, Technology 
& Operations, Walt Disney Internet Group). He made a great presentation, 
calling for a win-win-win for consumers, services providers and content 
owners. I think he and I where both taken aback by how close our respective 
visions really were. Myles said he'd take a look at Kendra...
 

3. PRESS FOR KENDRA INITIATIVE

We had a great story by Victoria Shannon published in the International 
Herald Tribune entitled "The End User: Lonely quest for unity".
 

Victoria starts... "Daniel Harris is waging a brave, lonely quest to make 
it easy to consume any kind of digital media on any kind of device through 
any kind of Internet provider or portal. Did I mention anywhere in the 
world, in any language?"...
 

I should point out that "brave, lonely quest" are not my words - though it 
makes good press copy! I could perhaps see "persistence and gall" being 
more apt. And of course, this is not a "lonely quest", we are a team moving 
the Kendra vision forward. 
 

For the full story see:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/24/business/ptend25.php

4. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

Many thanks to Angela Eden for answering our call and sponsoring Neil's 
flight to Edinburgh. This meant that Neil Harris could present Kendra Base 
in the developer track at WWW2006.
 

Also, thanks to the WWW2006 organisers for paying for my accommodation for 
the whole event.
 

5. NEXT YEAR IN BANFF

We are currently in talks with the WWW2007 organisers to bring the media 
industry to W3C next year. With the knowledge that we gained from WWW2006 
and with much more time to plan I think we can be far more ambitious for 
WWW2007. If you're interested in being part of the WWW2007 team then get in 
touch. And watch this space:
 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?WWW2007

In the meantime: have a great summer! ;-)

Cheers Daniel

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