Ask Jeff Bezos, Adam Bosworth, John Doerr, Eddy Cue...

		Print
		Email weblog link
		Discuss
		Blog this

Tim O'Reilly
Sep. 21, 2004 12:40 PM
Permalink

As you probably know if you've followed O'Reilly, we have a pretty good track record of calling important technology trends early. We published our first book on the web in 1992, when there were only 200 web sites. We created the first commercial web site in 1993, along the way pioneering both internet advertising and the web portal (our site, GNN or the Global Network Navigator, was the first to do both). We published our first Linux book in 1991, and in 1998 organized the open source summit, the meeting where the term "open source" was formally adopted by the leaders of most major open source projects. So I hope I'll get your attention when I say that the trends that are emerging today are at least as earth-shaking as the web and the open source movement turned out to be.

I'm talking about the emergence of what I've started to call Web 2.0, the internet as platform. We heard about that idea back in the late 90s, at the height of the browser wars, but that turned out to be a false alarm. But I believe we're now starting the third age of the internet -- the first being the telnet-era command line internet, the second the web -- and the third, well, that tale grows in the telling. It's about the way that open source and the open standards of the web are commoditizing many categories of infrastructure software, driving value instead to the data and business processes layered on top of (or within) that software; it's about the way that web sites like eBay, Amazon, and Google are becoming platforms with rich add-on developer communities; it's about the way that network effects and data, rather than software APIs, are the new tools of customer lock-in; it's about the way that to be successful, software today needs to work above the level of a single device; it's about the way that the Microsofts and Intels of tomorrow are once again going to blindside established players because all the rules of business are changing.

I've organized a conference on this new platform, called, as you might expect from the above writeup, Web 2.0. The conference is being held three weeks from now in San Francisco, at the Hotel Nikko, October 5-7. Unlike other O'Reilly conferences, which are targeted more to developers, this one is targeted squarely at investors, technology executives, venture capitalists, and business strategists -- people who need to understand the shape of the future if they are going to take advantage of it. We're talking one-on-one with many of the key players in the new platform, plus showing "high order bit" demos of important new software.

The format of the conference is very conversational -- interviews with CEOs and technologists by people (like me) who want to get at the big insights behind their success. I have lots of ideas about what I want to ask these folks, but I bet you can make me even smarter, and the conference even better.

If you had a chance to sit one on one with Jeff Bezos in front of several hundred of his peers, what would you want to ask him? How about Adam Bosworth, whose recent move from BEA to Google has lots of people wondering what he's up to next? How about Eddy Cue? Just how far does Apple think it's going to be able to take iTunes and the digital music revolution?

Take a look at the program, then send me email submitting the questions you'd like to see asked of any of the speakers or panelists. (If you know my name, you know my email address.) If I'm not leading the session myself, I'll pass them on to the appropriate moderator, and we'll use the best of them to inform our line of questioning. Of course, if you come to the conference, you can ask your questions yourself, since every session will have time for audience interaction, and most of the speakers will be around for hallway conversations at the conference as well. And of course, you can also post your question here as a talkback on this blog. I hope to hear from you, or see you at the conference.

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world, and an activist for open standards. O'Reilly Media also publishes online through the O'Reilly Network and hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, and the Web 2.0 Conference. Tim's blog, the O'Reilly Radar "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. For everything Tim, see tim.oreilly.com.

What would you ask Jeff Bezos, or John Doerr, or Mark Cuban?
You must be logged in to the O'Reilly Network to post a comment.

Showing messages 1 through 5 of 5.

Amazon's UNACCEPTABLE and AVOIDABLE environmental costs
2008-03-23 06:15:50 wolfway [Reply | View]

Hi Amazon

In general I support and use your website A GREAT DEAL - however I find your POSTAGE POLICY when buying from your marketplace sellers is really quite UNACCEPTABLE.

Your PER ITEM postage policy is an utterly NEEDLESS waste of money and has a net stress effect on the environment, that is:
1) needless EXTRA packaging!
2) needless EXTRA transportation costs!
3) needless EXTRA traffic on the roads!

Given the increasingly grave environmental circumstances that we are collectively bringing upon ourselves any PR machine that would attempt to "justify" this needless and entirely AVOIDABLE extra wasteful cost is surely in denial?

I buy a lot(!) of books (and also photography consumables) from you and your marketplace e-tailers. With a postage price PER ITEM SET BY AMAZON when using your e-tailers I'm forced to buy from the absolutely cheapest source because of this additional cost even when I note that one e-tailer might have the same book at only a slightly higher price. It would make alround sense to buy from the same e-tailer where possible if the price differential is minimal and save on the postage and thereby ALSO the net cost to the environment...

Surely Amazon has a green/environmental policy?

Please be aware I am NOT a raving "environmentalist". However, I over the last 20+yrs I have been a freelance trainer/facilitator increasingly involved in assisting organisations with their sustainability issues. I'm hired by organisations within all economic sectors (private, statutory and voluntary). Interestingly, of all the facilitation tools at my disposal when working with organisations I am overwhelmingly called upon BY THEM to use Creative Thinking Tools in order that they may creatively address their local/global economic matters in relation to burgeoning local/global issues of environment for the simple reason that the environmental stresses that we are all collectively driving aren't going to go away anytime soon but, by overwhelming consensus, are getting worse. It therefore behooves us all to do what we can, no?

I would appreciate it if whoever receives this email passes it up the management chain to the very top - to Mr Bezos himself! - for a creative reconsideration of this policy.

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Wolf White

AN OPEN LETTER TO JEFF BEZOS
2007-04-25 01:45:28 juandelacruz [Reply | View]

Dear Mr. Jeff Bezos,

I tried to look for an e-mail where I can forward my letter directly to you
but I can't find it.I don't want to use my Amazon.com log-in because I might be traced.

I am working for NCO Inc. Philippines as call center representative of Amazon.com. I am working for Amazon.com for more than 5 months now. I am now desperate, as my fellow agents too, how to resolve our issues. NCO have not addressed our concerns properly.
Every payday many of us have salary disputes. We are not getting the rightful salary that is due to us. Amazon.com Manila, Philippines is currently implementing mandatory overtime due to high volume of calls and yet, we are not getting the salary we worked for. Mandatory overtime was implemented because we don't have enough agents to handle the high volume of calls. Primary reason is many agents are resigning because of salary disputes. Supervisors are also resigning because of disputes. Managers are also resigning, not because of dispute but because of our Peaches Arispacochagas'(Service Delivery Manager) management. More agents have filed their resignation, others are planning to resign and the main reason of resignation is salary dispute.

As a result of this problem, our customer service is greatly affected, our calls are really bad. This means more dissatisfied customers. This is the main reason why Manila's EDR (expressed dissatisfaction rating) is the lowest among all sites.

We love our job but our job is not loving us back. We are helpless sir. Please do something about this. I know you have the power to help us uplift our morale.

ask Jeff Bezos
2005-02-21 14:42:53 Jeff_Sweeney [Reply | View]

Maybe you should ask Jeff Bezos why it seems to take months to order an O'Reilly book through Amazon.com and only days directly from O'Reilly.

ask Jeff Bezos
2008-06-04 12:24:34 gslone5742 [Reply | View]

The reason they can't get orders out the door any sooner or faster is because anyone with any brain cells that works at Amazon.com they fire or let go. I have worked at the Amazon.com plant in Lexington, KY 3 times. I worked 1 year in rebin, 1 year in pack on the autobx, and for a couple of months in the new pack area, that had been only up and running for a month when I started in that department. Other than working for Amazon, I have worked in a dozen warehouses. Also, I have an associates in marketing management, and like 8 classes finishing a bachelor's in computer science. In the new pack area, when I started in nov.07, they had 95 people packing downstairs and 95 upsatirs, and where only doing about 7,000 shipments a day. The first week working in kaos with no order, they had 105 switcheroos in one day. The reason was because they had 2 or 3 people to each station, and every time the line stopped because slam was backed up, everyone kept packing and was pushing the boxes on the conveyer back and making them fall off. I told Sara, the area manager my suggestions, they put one person to a station,instructed everyone to stop packing when the line stops, and the next day we had 5 switheroos. Sara, Eugene and Travis all where saying no one knows anything about this set up yet. I kept telling them it will never work set up like this. There is too many people triping over each other to do this job. They kept hiring more people and getting no where. Finally after several weeks Eugene started to listen to me and tried my suggestions. He walked through the stations with a legal pad writing down my suggestions. Each side of a rebin wall has 65 bins in it. A regulation rebin cart has 60. The stations just look so much larger because some of the bins are larger, to hold large items. I suggested that we put one person on each side of a rebin wall, two ambassadors floating for each line, and only one person rebining, instead of 2. He tried what I suggested, not only did we have fewer errors, put out more shipments, everyone's productivity rate went up as well. After trying what I had suggested a week later we were doing 35,000 shipments a day, instead of the 7,000 they were doing when I started in that department. Their labor cost dropped tremendously, since we went from 190 people packing to 80, and from 76 to 38 on the rebin side. Times that times 11.00 an hour, and that will tell you how much money I saved them. All of the operations managers knew that these suggestions were my idea as well as, Eugene and Sara. They even station me on station 1 with a desk set up beside me, with an opps manager who stood there watching my every move all day and taking notes. Even though I saved them thousands, and made them thousands by getting more shipments out and fewer errors, I got let go 2 weeks before Christmas, with me a single mother and 2 kids. Travis verified I made 2 mistakes and so gladly come to throw it up in my face, mainly because he was intimidated by me. So he moved me to loading boxes on a box trolly.Even though the mistakes were later proven to be software glitches, I still got left loading boxes. Not only am I smarter than most of the people I was working around, but also one of the very few people in the department that had any warehouse experience. But Jeff Bezos so happily called up Eugene to congratulate them on what a wonderful job they were doing, and he came into the standup gloating, saying he couldn't be happier. Which is why I had to be fired so no one but them would know it wasn't their idea, and make them look like the idiots that they are. It's one thing to be good at managing people, but another to have practical common sense and logic. Since I busted my but for them for 2 and half years, and got treated so poorly, I hope one day to find there number one competitor, become an area manager for them and kick Amazon's ass.

Web 2.0
2004-09-22 17:02:50 eagle3 [Reply | View]

All the capital has been flowing to into the Security black hole, we need to free our imaginations and create an economic engine that benefits all of us. We’ve built the network, we’re connected, and we know the power of people collaborating. A single idea can spark innovation; do we have the courage to ignite that spark?

Showing messages 1 through 5 of 5.

Return to weblogs.oreilly.com.

Weblog authors are solely responsible for the content and accuracy of their weblogs, including opinions they express, and O'Reilly Media, Inc., disclaims any and all liabililty for that content, its accuracy, and opinions it may contain.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.