Platform Wars: A Brief History
Track: Sponsored Sessions
Tags Sponsored Sessions, platformsm
Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. VHS vs. Beta. PC vs. Mac. AC vs. DC. As long as platforms have been a valuable resource, wars have been fought to control them. Eventually, either through trickery, persistence, or legislation, all wars come to an end. By understanding these wars, old and new, we’ll be better prepared to survive the next.
Comments
Completely shocked that at a web conference, a session called platform wars had nothing to do with the web. We actually talked about piano paper from 1910. Also, never in my life seen someone literally read word for word off of slides that had nothing but text on them before. Why bother presenting?
A dynamic speaker, but the content was dated and he spent too much time on irrelevant topics. This does not pass for a serious talk. I really don't need fifteen minutes on HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray, especially considering that has been settled.
@mike and @jason: sorry if you felt the talk wasn't what you expected. My goal was to give the audience some context and tools so they could put current web trends in perspective and make decisions for themselves. I used the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD story to illustrate how platform wars evolve and I felt it would be something a majority of the audience would know about. Yes, I talked about player piano paper, because it shows that history does repeat itself if we don't pay attention.
Normally a speaker who reads off note cards isn't good, but Rolf was outstanding. He didn't leave a slide up long enough to read it comfortably so you had to focus on him. Yet everything was written down for people who read the slides later. In general, I wouldn't recommend this format, but Rolf was able to pull it off. Excellent presentation!