Very interesting, discussed approaches and real applications designed to cut through the clutter and extract real information from the proliferation of on-line inputs. While the sessions does not hold all the answers, it starts down the path of answering what will be a critical problem.

Very much connected in my mind with Clay Shirky's keynote (http://webexny2008.crowdvine.com/talks/show/1036), the concept of overload being in existence since the advent of printing, but the failure of filters to keep up.

@John Lee, not sure if you were following but the two key insights that you picked up were more about the starting point and foundation for a richer web, which will be the next step in the evolution of the applications that are built.

To your first point, people have been using RSS readers for quite some and thats one way we begin to get to more information in an organized way, but its the next step that was more the concern: how to algorithmically filter personalized data-sets from the noise.

To your second point, this is actually false. The person with the most tweets will "typically" not have very many followers because that person will be creating too much unimportant noise.

Anyway, sorry you didn't enjoy it.

@John Held, agreed, its a critical problem. Im suggesting that the best method for approaching the uncertainties, while many continue to tackle and innovate in the area of filtering, is to stay plugged in and ontop of as much as possible.

Andrew-

Had to leave your presentation early to pick up my daugher from preschool, but really enjoyed what I saw. (and certainly would categorize it as "lame") Anyway to get a copy of it? How do I get in touch with you?

Andrew I enjoyed it. I thought it was insightful and well done. Thank you. I wish there were more comprehensive tools to monitor and measure social, it is all so fragmented and time consuming. To the future...

I didn't get a lot out of this presentation. My takeaway was, there's a lot of information out there about your company from different sources, and here are some tools to aggregate that information.

Not helpful in terms of action items.

There was only 50 minutes, and the first 15 were about the history of communication. Anyone who has a degree should already know what a significant role the printing press and satellites have played to the history of knowledge sharing. This was generic material that could be tacked onto the beginning of any communication-related presentation, but not what we were there for. You don't need to sell us on the importance of the tail-end of news and media, we're already here. Get to the how-to and the stuff we might not already know.

The presenter could have also benefited from a public speaking course as well. He sounded very unsure and not very excited.

Also, @ John Lee:
(a) What does being right out of college have to do with anything? Some of the best voices on the web are young.
(b) He's not just out of college. He used to teach university courses.

Age and experience do not necessarily determine the caliber of a presenter. Also, using immature quips like "Lame" about the perceived maturity of a presenter is sort of like the pot calling the kettle black.