Going to Dalian, China

As part of the Technology Pioneers program of the World Economic Forum Inaugural Meeting of the New Champions, I will be attending the  in Dalian, China (map).  (See my blogs on the World Economic Forum at Davos) The organizer of the event  Klaus Schwab has said that the event of Dalian will become a second pillar to Davos recognizing the rise of Asian emerging markets and new players in the bigger economy. Many of the people from Davos will be there. I plan to arrive on the Sept 5 and go back to England on the 9th.

One of my objectives is to help determine our strategy for Asia and building up Alfresco in the east. China in particular is already one of the top ten countries using Alfresco and participating in our forums and wikis and Alfresco has been translated into Chinese for awhile now. We are looking for ways to bridge the big geographical divide to participate and share in one of the biggest economic explosions of all time.

In addition, I will be part of a panel discussion on New Internet Technologies on the 8th moderated by Thomas Crampton of the International Herald Tribute along with the CTO of Nokia and the CEO of Netvibes. It should be interesting.

Since I have never been to China, I plan on stopping off in Beijing and seeing the forbidden city. If you live in Beijing and are around the morning of September 5th, perhaps we can meet up there. Just drop me a line.

Comments

[russ]

Either my RSS feed is broken or you are holding out on us! :)

[Michael Young]

Hey John,

We're actually opening our office in Dalian on 9/19. Too bad we'll miss you by a couple weeks!

[Russ]

Something popped in my mind regarding this post the other day while I was pondering open source and business.

I am glad to know (as has been my experience with Alfresco) that in determining a strategy for a market, making physical contact with the customer is part of the process.

Some people think that open source so changes the equation that customers download and install software without ever meeting the people behind the code. Some do. But I believe there is more of a need than ever before in this world (made small by technology) to know the customer; personally. We can never do enough to understand our customer’s current needs and reality, and anticipate their future needs.

[Russ]

Last year Davos seemed to propel you down a line of thinking I found really interesting; the psychology of web 2.0. Furthermore -- applied to content management.

Alfresco made a statement the day it went live: "Let the user work the way they want to – the way they are used to working (CIFS, content management that can take place in the background)." I think that is technology that is built on top of the psychology of its users. It meets the user where they are – and that is a great round 1!

Subsequent Rounds: – I hope this is more than just better user interfaces (sure that is a huge part of it) – but I think Alfresco has so much more to offer than that. I’d like to see subsequent rounds that are “experience stretching” for the user. But I think we want to expand the concept of user experience beyond the province of traditional UI. We need to go beyond ease of use to include transparency, participation, flow theory, emotional/personal hooks, innovation, and network effects – and it has to be simple despite being complex under the hood. So what is content management 2.0 and beyond? What does ECM look like in Shai’s construction (physical analog of the internet?)

I think I am looking forward to this trip as much as you are  I really enjoyed all of your thoughts from the last trip and I look forward to more of the same.

Have a good time!
Best,
-R