Procrastination ensured that I am only now recording my thoughts about ”The Cult of the Amateur: how today’s internet is killing our culture” but better late than never and coincidentally topical given one of the themes for  this year’s ‘Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford’ – Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction. ‘Cult of the Amateur’ is a punchy 2007 book by journalistic commentator, Andrew Keen;  it essentially represented the first bucket of cold water enthusiastically poured over the euphoria which once engulfed the world of on line social media and social networking (the recession represented the second bucket of ice cold water!)

The book was a welcome antidote to the fevered hype surrounding the very Silicon Valley invention – user generated content, it challenged the democratisation of the on line media platforms which had spurred the crowds to storm the palace gates. It criticized the unwashed masses – the ‘amateur’ musicians, journalists, literary authors and film makers, globally broadcasting their work using web technologies (to swamp the internet.)

‘…when ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule?’

Also explored is the web’s creative destruction of the advertising models supporting newspapers and magazines;  lamenting the deceleration of the newspaper industry, Keen blames Craigslist and quotes Adam Smith. Regarding, the digital piracy-led annihilation of the music industry, Keen’s polemic or rant (depending on your perspective…) means that he forgets the giant steps of the 20th century’s music industry - the cultural revolutions of jazz, blues, soul, rock, heavy metal, punk, hip hop, house, techno - genres which challenged the middle-of-the-road anti-innovation record label bosses:

‘Say good-bye to today’s experts and cultural gatekeepers – our reporters, news anchors, editors, music companies, and Hollywood movie studios.’

Andrew rightly criticizes the unadulterated praise heaped on the ‘wisdom of crowds’ concept famously epitomised by Wikipedia, and in a later 2008 discussion at the Oxford Internet Institute he interestingly suggests that universities act as gatekeepers for on line encyclopaedic resources.

You are probably wondering about the relevance of this 2007 book in 2010 and here goes:

- Today, the AOL acquired-Bebo once the healthy posterchild of the UK web 2.0 landscape, optimistically purchased for $850M/£550 with post tax profits of £2.6M, is now due for a sell-off or closure after startling yoy financial losses of £1M and declines in traffic

-  The News International acquired-Myspace is struggling against the tide. Its original CEO and founder duo are no longer with Myspace and the subsequently appointed CEO has moved on…meanwhile another Rupert Murdoch-owned  media vehicle, Timesonline.com announced the introduction of paywalls for June 2010.

- Friends Reunited was subsequently sold for £25M after being purchased for £175M

- And Facebook is regularly embroiled in news stories around societal breakdown and crime

The good news is that the professional social network, LinkedIn is doing better than ever in the face of a job market downturn

The bad news is the overall absence of innovative and commercially workable business models beyond subscription paywalls for on line social media and social networks.

And, the newspaper and music industries are still in a state of flux – cheering thoughts.

www.siliconvalleyoxford.com

Key Theme: 10 Years

Reflecting on the last 10 years, and looking forwards to the next 10 years of innovations in technology, business models, investing and the business environment, Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford 2010 shall explore the disruptive technologies and business innovations of the past 10 years, reflecting on the demise of old industries, old economic models and old perspectives.

Sub-theme 1: Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction

The advancement of the Internet is arguably the greatest computer science innovation. Its overwhelmingly pervasive power has led to the disruption of established knowledge and cultural industries, sectors which represent the core of our very existence in terms of recording, reporting, reflecting and questioning our society and its culture.

Sub-theme 2: Could Silicon Valley exist anywhere in the world?

The tenth anniversary provides an opportunity to ask whether Silicon Valley could evolve into a generic term or metaphor for an entrepreneurial cluster anywhere in the world. What is the secret of Silicon Valley? Why has Europe never managed to create an equivalent (note that Oxfordshire is recognised as one of the most successful entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe.) At SVCO 08, investor, Saul Klein questioned whether the richness of European history, its architecture and long established institutions present an impediment. Contrast with Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. How does national culture, history, geography and policies impact or fuel the formation of entrepreneurial clusters? Is the next Silicon Valley likely to be in Shanghai or the already burgeoning Hyderabad or Bangalore?

After our museum tour, Mike Malone arranged for us trekkers to meet up with Ramu Sunkara, CEO and co-founder of Qik. Malone describes Qik as “the next Twitter” and he’s not alone as bloggers and tech journalists everywhere know that the Qik’s live mobile video streaming service is taking off around the globe. I also dig the fact that Ramu is an ex-Oracle employee since I too spent several years working for a software giant (SAP). The experience one acquires from working at a leading software company can often provide a more well-rounded business acumen which is something that certainly comes in handy when launching your own venture. As for the Qik service, I have yet to get it working on my Blackberry but will update my Qik channel as soon as it is.

Our final stop of the day was to see LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. <insert more LinkedIn content here>

<insert final thoughts here>

“I distinguish between having an MBA and being an MBA. Never be an MBA.”  – Joe DiNucci

After breakfast, we headed to the world’s hottest startup on earth – Twitter.  When we arrived at their office, we were greeted by founder Biz Stone (@Biz) and many others from the Twitter family including Oxford MBA alumni Santosh Jayaram (@santojay) who now runs Twitter’s operations.  It was interesting to hear Biz explain how Twitter was born but what really caught my attention was their strong focus on value creation through its real-time search.  For most entrepreneurs, I think the passion for creating value is simply part of their DNA.  However, when your product is experiencing phenomenal growth rates and non-stop media coverage like Twitter, it’s morally excellent to see the entrepreneurs still incredibly focused on value creation rather than cashing in their $250M+ chips to the Google’s of the world. 

When I first signed up for a Twitter account last year, I didn’t really “get it”.  Fortunately a few experienced Twitter users gave me some pointers which really helped.  I also downloaded a few third party Twitter apps like TweetDeck which greatly increase my usage.  However, the most valuable thing I find about Twitter is not how minimalist communication tools promote creativity (although that’s cool too) but rather how Twitter’s ecosystem is actually changing lives for the better.  And If Twitter turns out to be just another fad?  Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.            

Follow me on Twitter @nancyvega.

p.s. I was tempted to run my start-up idea through YouNoodle’s predictor but decided against.  For now, ignorance is bliss.     

After YouNoodle, we headed over to Y Combinator to meet up with Paul Graham.  The Y Combinator model is unique in that entrepreneurs are not required to submit a business plan in order to apply for funding.  In fact, what’s great about Y Combinator’s model is that not only do they provide seed money to help the founders get started, they also provide mentorship thereby serving as a “one-stop shop” incubator for entrepreneurs.  And let’s face it, if you have the chance to learn from someone like Paul who’s already ‘been there, done that (and did it well)’, then giving up 2-10% equity in your startup is actually a pretty good deal.  And of course Paul’s 1-hour mentorship session to us trekkers was equally valuable in that he reminded us about the importance of team dynamics – especially when it comes to selecting your co-founder(s).   It’s funny how sometimes the most obvious lessons are the ones we need reminding of the most.

The entire SVCO event however goes by faster than the speed of light.  The following day I kept thinking to myself, “That’s it?  It’s over already?”  If you’re a passionate, budding entrepreneur like me, the answer is no.  Less than a week after the SVCO dust had settled, Jon (my co-chair) and I were already exchanging emails titled ‘Oxford Comes to Silicon Valley’.  

After five long months of planning a trek in-between (and often times during) academic lectures and assignments, here we are in Silicon Valley getting ready to meet with some of the most successful and interesting entrepreneurs on this planet.  Just three words come to mind… BRING IT ON.