SVASE Event: 'MAIN EVENT: Is Web 2.0 Over?' July 12, 2007

SVASE Event: 'MAIN EVENT: Is Web 2.0 Over?'

Event: 'MAIN EVENT: Is Web 2.0 Over?'

Date: Thursday, July 12, 2007 At 06:00
Duration: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
Contact Info:
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304 Contact: Laura Weigant Email: [email protected]
URL:svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=987

It's 2007 -- Social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo are growing faster than ever, and high-valued "web 2.0" acquisitions like Photobucket and Last.fm continue to roll in, but people are already talking about "web 3.0", and even: "web 2.0"'s #1 cheerleader Michael Arrington now says "Silicon Valley Could Use A Downturn Right About Now." Is "web 2.0" just a bunch of overfunded derivative built-to-flip websites that no one will ever use or are we still in the early stages of huge opportunities created by irreversible technology trends and the democratization of content?

Is Web 2.0 over? It's been 3 years since the term was coined and since then VCs and entrepreneurs have engaged in a frenzy of new venture formation. Our experienced and opinionated panelists will explore the topic of the direction of Web 2.0 and the WWW, and opportunitiers for entrepreneurs and startups.
• Is there any substance beyond the hype about AJAX, social networking, and user-generated content?
• Is this "Bubble 2.0" and is it about to burst?
• Is the semantic web of "web 3.0" the next big thing?
• Or, will 2007 make 2005 look like 2001?

The Panel:
• Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO, Socializr and Friendster
• Naval Ravikant, Partner, The Hit Forge
• TBD
• TBD

Moderator: Jeff Clavier, Founder and Managing Partner, SoftTech Venture Consulting

WHEN: Thursday, July 12
6:00 - 7:00 pm: Networking and hors d’oeuvres
7:00 - 8:15 pm: Panel discussion and Q/A
8:15 - 8:30 pm: Additional networking

LOCATION:
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR Campus), 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304

PRE-REGISTERED RATES (All Rates Include Hors D’oeuvres):
Members - $20; Affiliates who advertise this event - $29; General Public - $49

WALK-IN RATES: Add $10.00 to the listed price

To reserve an Exhibit Table:
Contact [email protected], $500 Members, $1,000 Non-members.

Seating is limited, so early registration is recommended to avoid disappointment on the day.

This event is co-sponsored by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, www.wsgr.com

Speaker Bios

Jonathan Abrams, Founder and CEO, Socializr and Friendster
Jonathan Abrams is the founder, CEO, and Junior Computer Programmer at Socializr, an online service for sharing event and party information with your friends. Jonathan is an award-winning serial entrepreneur who created the pioneering social networking service Friendster in 2002. Jonathan is the inventor of a United States Patent for a "System, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks."

Previously, Jonathan was the founder & CEO of bookmarking community HotLinks, and worked as a software engineer at companies such as Netscape and Nortel. Jonathan holds an Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science from McMaster University, which he received after flunking out of engineering school.

Jonathan was named a "Breakout star of 2003" by Entertainment Weekly, and as one of Advertising Age Magazine’s "Entertainment Marketers of the year." Jonathan has also been honored as one of the world’s top young innovators by the MIT Technology Review, and nominated in the software designer category for the 2004 Wired Rave Awards.

Jonathan is a member of the advisory board of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, and has been extensively involved in the silicon valley entrepreneurial community, including past roles such as co-chair of the SDForum Venture Finance SIG, and a judge for the Stanford Entrepreneur's Challenge business plan contest, the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition, and the Stanford-Berkeley Innovators' Challenge.

Jeff Clavier, Founder and Managing Partner, SoftTech Venture Consulting
Based in Palo Alto (CA), Jean-Francois "Jeff" Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech Venture Consulting, a firm providing services to the “software ecosystem”, primarily early stage consumer Internet startups. Jeff will typically get involved as an advisor, board member or part-time executive, focusing on business development, fund raising, and strategy matters. He is also one of the most active angel investors in the Web 2.0 space.

His current areas of interests — both in terms of projects and personal investments – include search, social media (blogging, syndication, aggregation), communities and open source. These are also the primary topics covered on his blog, Software Only, alongside venture capital, startup and industry news,… Software Only is also part of the Web 2.0 Workgroup.

Jeff has spent over sixteen years in the software market, as an entrepreneur, a senior executive and a venture capitalist. Throughout his career, he got exposed to the global market: leading development teams in Europe and on Wall Street, designing products that were sold internationally and investing in software infrastructure startups across the USA and Europe.

Prior to founding SoftTech VC, Jeff was the President of RVC Capital, the firm managing the Reuters Greenhouse Fund – the Corporate Venture arm of Reuters that has invested $560M in 82 companies since 1994, including Yahoo!, Verisign, Phone.com, Infoseek,… As the Partner in charge of US Operations, Jeff’s focus was on investing and managing the US portfolio, as well as supporting all companies in their commercial and business development efforts. Jeff’s Board involvements included UltraDNS (CA), Tacit (CA) and Pathfire (GA). He was also involved in a number of other portfolio companies: Moreover (UK), Bitpipe (MA), PacketVideo (CA), SpiritSoft (UK), Epicentric (CA), Kinecta (CA), GiantBear (NY) and Epoch Partners (CA).

Jeff joined the Venture arm of Reuters from its product development division, where he was leading the development of the Risk Management and Desktop unit. He had direct responsibly for 250+ staff in Paris, London and New-York, developing a number of leading front and middle office products: the ATW suite of Unix applications, the Kondor+ Risk Management offering, and the flagship Reuters Desktop Kobra/3000 Xtra, that he designed back in 1993. Jeff became instrumental in the development of the Reuters Open Systems product line since the early 1990’s, after its acquisition of Effix Systems, the Paris-based startup company he helped develop in 1989.

Naval Ravikant, Partner, The Hit Forge
Naval was a founder of Genoa Corporation (acquired by Finisar), and the founding CEO of Epinions Inc., (went public as Shopping.com after a merger with Dealtime), and Vast.com. He invested in numerous companies while an investor at August Capital, and has advised and helped XFire (sold to Viacom), Bix (sold to Yahoo!), Dulance (sold to Google), iPivot (sold to Intel), and many other companies. Naval currently manages a small fund focused on early-stage social media investments and co-authors Venturehacks.com

Official Website: http://svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=987