Wed

Aug 22
2007

Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly

O'Reilly Launches Money:Tech Conference

Earlier this year, I began noodling on the parallels between Web 2.0 and financial markets. That led to a session on this topic as part of the O'Reilly Radar Executive Briefing at ETech, and an issue of the Release 2.0 newsletter. As we've continued to explore this topic, we decided to launch a new conference to explore the space. Entitled Money:Tech, the conference will be held at the Waldorf-Astoria in NYC on February 6-7, 2008.

The theme we have chosen for this year's conference is "Finding Alpha in a World of Commodity Data", focusing on the insatiable demand for new and better data. We think this demand -- especially given recent problems at many so-called "quant" funds all relying on the same over-used data sets -- is creating opportunities for fund managers, as well as for entrepreneurs and VCs.

The central idea for the conference came out of a conversation with venture capitalist and former Wall Street trader Paul Kedrosky. As reported in Release 2.0:

Paul Kedrosky... sees a revolution in the business of Wall Street as Web 2.0 provides rich new sources of data on the financial performance of companies. For years, the buy side and the sell side have been trying to make money from the same data -- company earnings reports, SEC filings, and so on. "It's the most over-fished pond in the world," he notes.

We liked this idea so much that we've partnered with Paul to create this conference. He's written up his take on the Money:Tech conference on his blog. I wanted to expand on what Paul said, though, and put this conference into the broader context of Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is ultimately about "collective intelligence." So too, of course, are financial markets. But the breakthroughs in Web 2.0, as in financial markets, have often come when a company realizes the overlooked potential in a source of data that was available all along. (The canonical Web 2.0 example was Larry Page's realization that link analysis provided metadata -- the so-called PageRank -- that could be used to radically improve search.)

What other new kinds of data are being exposed in today's increasingly networked world that can be the foundation for insight and value creation? That's what this conference intends to showcase. We want to bring Web 2.0 entrepreneurs to Wall Street, so that the Street can learn from these companies -- and help teach them about new ways to leverage the data they are gathering. Because that's the other key insight here: many startups toiling in the fields of the consumer internet are missing opportunities to monetize their data in financial markets.

We believe that the drumbeat of new data sources coming on stream is only just beginning. What's more, we believe that the technology for extracting meaning from that data is maturing. And in particular, we believe that Web 2.0 brings new capabilities in the area of real time intelligence. What's more, unlike Wall Street firms, which keep their techniques and sources of proprietary advantage close to the vest, many firms focused on consumer internet opportunities have nothing to lose by sharing their insights and their data with those in a position to exploit it.

We're hoping to be joined by some of the most innovative technologists on Wall Street. In addition to looking at this data angle, we'll be exploring what cutting edge ideas financial firms and web 2.0 companies are exploring on similar paths: areas like massively parallel computing, managing really large systems, and squeezing the last ounce of performance out of networks and computing equipment.

Now of course, you might ask whether we're crazy to be launching a conference aimed at financial markets in the middle of the current market turmoil. Well, maybe :-) Like everyone else, we'd rather the markets were a bit less uncertain. But it's actually in times like these that new sources of data can make a difference. Mathematical models can be wrong, but new sources of data can provide actual insight into breaking trends from the real world. We like to think that the lessons of this conference can be more appropriate now than ever.

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Comments: 7

  Alex Tolley [08.22.07 07:14 AM]

This is a very interesting idea.

I'm reminded of Peter Lynch's apocryphal story about local investing - a woman decided against buying a retail clothes stock because when she visited the store, there was nobody in the store buying.

On the recent turmoil, I noticed for some weeks that CountryWide was getting increasingly frequent in its junk mail solicitations for aggressive re-financings, a possible sign of the market saturating locally.

Your own book market information is a better form of "the bookshelf share" as a gauge of early SW trends. Surges in VB, Java, RoRails and now javascript/AJAX all accurately portended industry trends. Every industry probably has those indicators, e.g. how fast does a designer clothes collection end up on the racks at TJ MAxx?

  Ajeet Khurana [08.22.07 12:00 PM]

The current market turmoil has nothing to do with it if you are really launching the conference about, should I say Money 2.0

Web 2.0 is seen as a collection of technologies. But, in my mind it is more about a new way of thinking. And this way of thinking can be applied to all areas of mass-interaction. Financial markets hence are a good choice.

  Search Engines WEB [08.22.07 12:54 PM]

This is a VERY GOOD idea and the conference will attract many of the movers and shakers and intellectuals of the business world and tech world.

There is only one problem ... NEVER HOLD ANYTHING IN EARLY FEBUARY IN NEW YORK CITY !! that period happens to be the coldest and snowiest and windiest period out of the entire year for that city - besides having the shortest amount of daylight.

UUUGH

  Dan [08.22.07 03:55 PM]

Sounds like an interesting "dialogue" to me. The investment firms that make billions a year listening about how to handle their data from companies that burn loads of cash--sometimes even cash supplied by the private equity divisions of the very same Wall Street firms that come to listen--and "which," as we know, "keep their techniques and sources of proprietary advantage close to the vest."

Is the web so frothy again that we're ready to look beyond mere SEC filings and those confining, unimaginative, audited numbers? Hopefully these "rich new sources of data" that replace them won't be based on false or misleading data like the "pro-forma earnings" and "EBITDA" that were constantly thrown around during the last bubble and are starting to pop up again.

  ed [09.10.07 10:58 AM]

This is not build a field and they will come, please give an agenda.

  ed [09.10.07 10:58 AM]

This is not build a field and they will come, please give an agenda.

  Wiktor Sarota [02.13.08 12:46 PM]

I wish O'Reilly could do some conferenes in Poland. What we' ve got know are books from O'Reilly translate by polish publisher Helion.pl. :-)

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