Re: [Dfey-nw-discuss] "Tomorrow's Web"

[Tim Dobson]

Stephen Mount wrote:
 > Although I don't think the DFEY crew are the appropriate audience for
> this event, as we don't all seem to aspire to be a founder of a website 
> which allows you to poke people.

 <snip>

> You can find out all about it here:-
>
> http://tomorrowswebconf.com/index.php

I'd like to give my perspective on Tommorrow's Web Conference.

I do, on principle like the idea of event's involving young people & 
technology as I feel anything that brings together technologically adept 
young people is a worthwhile activity.

However, that said, I am very concerned about several aspects of 
Tommorrow's Web.


* It's unclear what it's about.

So the website says:
"The Tomorrow's Web Conference brings youth and technology together in 
London, this coming August 8th. It's the first of it's kind to hit the 
UK, and is already set to be a truly unique and exciting event, and with 
over 9 hours worth of planned speakers, panels and startup pitches, you 
can see why!

Learn from the entrepreneurs and innovators of tomorrow, find out what 
they're thinking about current and future topics on the web. Be part of 
something extraordinary and talk with future potential Mark Zuckerbergs. 
As well as playing a key role in supporting the future of the industry."

Which is fairly vague marketing patter, when one goes to:
http://tomorrowswebconf.com/agenda.php
There is no agenda, and so it is very hard to get a feel for what it's 
about which worries me.
As someone suggested on IRC earlier about something else:
"if it had clear direction at the beginning only people who agreed with 
that direction would've joined and so it'd be able to work together better."

For me to suggest to anyone, they should commit any amount of money to 
travel costs going to an event, I need to have a clear idea of what the 
event is about.

I can't do this at the moment.


* Speakers

Take a look at this link:
http://tomorrowswebconf.com/speakers.php

Great! So the entrepreneurs and innovators we are learning from include 
two esteemed vloggers and a guy who once received a phone call from 
Scotland's first minister in his Geography lesson.

With all due respect, I'm not sure how this has anything to do with the 
subject of the conference. Of course, not having a clear idea about what 
 the conference actually is about might or might not make talks from 
people who have received phone calls from important people relevant.

(Disclaimer: I have been asked to speak at the event myself on general 
free software advocacy - not really something that's my strong point)


* It feels very commercially orientated.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not an anti-capitalist or anything quite 
so exciting, I'm all for teenage entrepreneurship, I indulge in a bit 
myself, but should teen entrepreneurs be courting Venture capitalists 
from the word go, giving pitches for their ideas to "dragons" (aka VC's).

In my opinion probably not.
You may, if you are lucky find yourself in the position of Larry & 
Sergey in a few years time, but many web entrepreneurs are successful 
and never touch VC money, building one's businesses organically.

Running a session on businesses for dummies would be much appreciated by 
one person here at least, but why do I already have to have an idea to 
get the advice in the form of a pitch.


* Exploitation

I'm somewhat worried about the members of DFEY being commercially 
exploited without perhaps realising it at first.

On several occasions I have refered work to friends of mine who are 
involved in DFEY. Before passing anything on, I am very careful to make 
sure that I trust the work not to mess one around and that I would do 
the work myself for whatever was being offered, if I could/was free.

Having put in 3 months of elbow grease to produce setup a completely 
functional e-commerce during my GCSE mocks for just £300, I have learned 
the hard way about projects to just *not* get involved with.

I'm very worried that there may be people looking to exploit people's 
technological capabilities and natural goodwill for their own gain, 
without any regard for what might be "fair".

(As a rule of thumb if it's not a free software project and they want 
you to work for nothing or don't discuss payment, run away fast)


* Data Security

I know may people in DFEY value the security of their data very highly, 
so one thing that unnerved me was when one of the organisers asked me 
for contact details and URLs of young people involved in DFEY.
When asked "er, why?", the response came back - to add to a database of 
young people interested in technology.

I quickly declined.

Neither I personally nor DFEY are in the business of passing on your 
information without your knowledge or consent.

Posting to the mailing list reaches most people anyway.


* Marketing of the event

I have been quite concerned by how this event has been aggressively 
marketed to people.

Several times during it's build up I have seen tweets to the effect of 
"Over $number people are attending Tomorrows Web". The tomorrow's web 
sign up page lists who has signed up. The number of people on the list 
has always been ~25% less than the $number specified in the tweets.
This practise of aggressively rounding figures up may work out well for 
some, but to me it doesn't send out a good ethos to me.



I would dearly like tomorrow's web to be a success - the chances are 
I'll end up putting up the money to get down to london, but due to what 
I've just explained I can't recommend going.

I do hope what I've mentioned gets addressed and I'm able to suggest 
people might like to go, but for the time being, I would keep an arms 
length.

Regards,

Tim