Using the present to create the future: How can we move South Africa from consumer to producer of web technologies. My keynote talk at the ZAWWW2011 conference, Sept 15th, 2011 in Johannesburg.

1. Using the present to
create the future
How can we move South Africa
from consumer to producer of
web technologies
Dr Derek W. Keats
dKeats Innovation
http://www.dkeats.com
derek@dkeats.com
+27 82 787 0169

4. 2011
Not what … but how do
it will be ... we play a part
Pa e in its creation
st ur
Fut
PRESENT
Keynotes in
South Africa
My assigned task

5. Let's go back...
th
20 Century

6. In this People
ancient Computers
went to
world of were big!
computers
the 20th
Century
The web linked media that
were representations of
traditional content ...
Servers Browsing
provided the Search
content web
But now.....

7. Change is afoot...
The things we do
over http:// have
changed and
will continue
changing
We need to decide
Do we help create
change, and benefit
accordingly, or do
we just fall in line
with what happens
as we do now,
mostly
… with the Web

9. a 'web of data' that
enables machines
to 'understand' the
meaning of
information on the
World Wide Web

10. What exactly is today's WWW
anyway?
Human
Web browser
Client device
http
TCP/IP
Web Server
It's just data

11. What exactly is today's WWW
anyway?
A program
Here be
running opportunities
somewhere
http Human
TCP/IP Web browser
Web Server
Client device
It's just data

12. Licenses that
foster sharing
and reusability
Free Software
(Open Source) Platforms that
are free but
owned
Platforms for
sharing and
remixing
content
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

13. Content specific
social networks
MySpace Social
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

14. Social networking and The social academic
semantic web
e.g.
for researchers
Crowdsourced curation
of research papers

15. The links
Context mean Semantic
something
Social
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

16. Linked
data Using the Web to
connect related
data
Extends http
and URIs
Data can be
read automatically
by computers
Data fm different
sources can be
You don't connected &
have to be human queried
to access and
use it

18. Augmented
reality
Semantic
Social
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

19. Augmented reality
A live direct or indirect view
of a physical real-world
environment whose
elements are augmented by
virtual computer-generated
imagery ...
… in real-time and in
semantic context with
environmental elements ...
… information about the
surrounding real world of the
user becomes interactive
and digitally usable.

23. The Internet of
TCP/IP
Version 6 Things
Augmented
reality
Semantic
Social
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

24. Augmented
People
Things
Augmented
reality
Semantic
Social
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

25. Augmented
People
Things
Augmented
reality
Semantic
Social
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

26. Augmented
People
Things
Augmented
reality
Semantic
Social
Content
Early Recent
Today's Tomorrow's
web web web web

27. Key challenges
HTTP_GET
The Web is a knowledge economy
The key elements that build on it are
dug out of the human mind, not out of
the ground

28. Attitude
Key challenges
Belief
Education

29. Risk aversion
Don't
fail
Fail fast,
fail often,
fail
cheaply
He left out a comma on the user interface

30. Belief in
ourselves
Key challenges

31. Scale
At least
Key challenges
two orders
of magni-
tude

32.
Every
permission
is a barrier
Permission culture
Key challenges

33. When core
things are free
and open, there
are no barriers
to innovation.
When Bob Khan and I
created TCP/IP and a bunch
of us built a platform for
internetworking, we did not
patent the technologies used.
We set TCP/IP free. Had we
not done so, it is doubtful if
the Internet as we know it
today would have come into
being.
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn being awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush,
image from Wikipedia
TCP/IP

34. When core I just had to take the
things are free hypertext idea and connect
and open, there it to the Transmission
are no barriers Control Protocol and
to innovation. domain name system ideas
and — ta-da! — the World
When Bob Khan and I Wide Web
created TCP/IP and a bunch
of us built a platform for
internetworking, we did not
patent the technologies used.
We set TCP/IP free. Had we
not done so, it is doubtful if
the Internet as we know it
today would have come into
being.
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn being awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom by President Bush, image from
Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the first webserver from
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
TCP/IP http & HTML

35. When core I just had to take the
things are free hypertext idea and connect
and open, there it to the Transmission
are no barriers Control Protocol and
to innovation. domain name system ideas
and — ta-da! — the World
When Bob Khan and I Wide Web
created TCP/IP and a bunch
of us built a platform for
internetworking, we did not
patent the technologies used.
We set TCP/IP free. Had we
not done so, it is doubtful if
the Internet as we know it
today would have come into
being.
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn being awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom by President Bush, image from
Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the first webserver from
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
TCP/IP http & HTML

36. When core I just had to take the
things are free hypertext idea and connect
and open, there it to the Transmission
are no barriers Control Protocol and
to innovation. domain name system ideas
and — ta-da! — the World
When Bob Khan and I Wide Web
created TCP/IP and a bunch
of us built a platform for
internetworking, we did not
patent the technologies used.
We set TCP/IP free. Had we
not done so, it is doubtful if
the Internet as we know it
Layers of innovation built on Freedom
today would have come into
being.
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn being awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom by President Bush, image from
Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the first webserver from
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
TCP/IP http & HTML

37. Started in
Without
a university
FOSS
environment
Key challenges
they would
Mark Zuckerberg
not have
largely
done it
informal
Jerry Yang & David Filo
Larry Page and Sergey Brin

38. Venture capital & angel
investment
Key challenges

39. Get out of the maths and science hole
● Stop thinking if you don't have maths you
can't do anything useful
Key challenges

40. Wasting our youth
Key challenges

41. 680 000
wrote matric
in 2010
77 000
will be
unemployed
after
graduation
130 000
found
230 000 places at
qualify for university
university 100 000
did not find
places at
university

42. Universities
in South Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tengeru_market.jpg

43. Innovation
A new type of institution

44. Thank you
This presentation was made
entirely using Free Software
Derek Keats, PhD
derek@dkeats.com
http://www.dkeats.com
http://facebook.com/dkeats