Gord Hotchkiss didn't waste anytime in putting his mark on my Buzz-o-meter. In his opening remarks, Gord planted some seeds for what he hoped would be recurring themes throughout the summit. Gord
pointed to the concepts of
Community and
Connection as core to search and asked conference attendees to think about the application of search within that framework when pondering its
current and future state. Gord asked us to think of search as "a function that drives connection within communities." He pointed out that the internet has changed the definition of community. Its
root is
common and that used to be defined by a geographic boundary. Now, with the internet breaking down geo silos, community is definied by passions, ideology, etc. And search plays the
role of connecting people to various communities. The challenge, Gord emphasized, is that it's tough to deliver a strong connection within the confines of a space a couple inches long and one inch
wide (referring to the search box). So we need to think of search
outside the box. (bzzzzzzzzz) And this, according to Gord, is why we're seeing so much focus on trends like social search and
personalization. So far it seems like Gord's buzzwords are catching on. The themes of Community and Connection pervaded the rest of this morning's sessions with Esther Dyson working them into her
view of the semantic web and Paul Martino from Aggregate Knowledge discussing how search enables connections between items (content) that, when culled together, make
discovery possible.
OK, that's all for now. I'll check in tonight and offer up my "Quote of the Day." I'm off to go
connect with the
community at the pool.