The Digital Convergence Initiativec has organized four unique convergence-focused sessions for SXSW 2007. Please join us! Register today!

Revisiting Commercial Open Source Business Models

Though we often talk of open source vs proprietary models for intellectual property as though the two were in opposition, many companies see the two as part of a spectrum of ownership and licensing alternatives. How is Open Source working in the commercial mix? Are new forms of IP emerging?

• Moderator: Edward A. Cavazos - Adjunct Professor of Software Licensing, UT School of Law & Principal Fish & Richardson
• Adina Levin, SocialText
• Alan Shimel - VP of Business Development, StillSecure
• Chris DiBona - Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc.
• Mark Fischer - Principal, Fish & Richardson and Stallman's advisor during drafting of original GPL License

Distribution 2.0

As we distribute packets and bits online, our new challenge is to follow those complex paths with robust conceptual and physical distribution models and methods for exchanging value. The contemporary virtual marketplace combines intangible and tangible products in ways undreamed of before the advent of digital convergence. How are we addressing the new world of niche markets, and how do we scale our activities as more and more new markets emerge?

• Moderator: Marshall Kirkpatrick - Tech Crunch
• Aaron Levie - CEO box.net
• David Dudas - CEO Eyespot
• Milena Berry - Co Founder Amiglia
• Paul Hainsworth - Helio

Living in Spatial Reality

Flickr recently launched a geo-tagging application that positioned 1.5 million flicker photos on Yahoo Maps in 48 hours. Google Earth features content that includes everything from touring a spot on the globe before visiting it to instantaneous seismic monitoring of every earthquake on the planet. How does the world adapt to new virtual representations of spatial reality? What trends can we expect as geologcal converges with other data and devices for spatial orientation grow more sophisticated, cheaper, and pervasive?

• Moderator: Frank Robles - CEO Neopolitan Networks
• Gina Bianchini - Co-founder and CEO of Ning
• Allan Doyle - MIT Museum Without Walls
• John Hanke - GM Google earth
• Daniel "Digital Dan" N Dubno - Producer and Technologist

Henry Jenkins: Convergence Culture - a conversation

Whole new cultures are emerging around convergent media, an example of which is The Matrix Trilogy, the narrative is which is contained, not just in the films, but also in comics, anim�, games, and web sites all serving a community of participants - they're actually more than "fans." Henry Jenkins' latest book, Convergence Culture, is an in depth review and critique of several evolving transmedia cultures, their quirks, and their impact on our perceptions. Conversation with danah boyd

• Henry Jenkins - Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities, author of Convergence Culture
• danah boyd - PhD candidate at the School of Information (SIMS) at the University of California - Berkeley and fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Communications