FICOD

Madrid, 22 November. The 5th International Forum on Digital Content (FICOD) opened its doors today at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in Madrid. The event, held until the 24th inclusive, has Telefónica as the main sponsor and Mexico as the guest country, and has become the meeting point where the digital content industry will discuss the trends and challenges facing the sector.

The event began with an opening session in which the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society, Juan Junquera, began by inviting the audience to open their eyes to all the transformations being experienced by the new technologies. "Everything is happening very fast and we must be aware of what is happening." Junquera highlighted the reliability, interoperability, storage capacity and interconnection of networks as the main advantages that define the Internet today. He also presented communication and language as the major inventions in the history of man, since "they allow us to develop all the creativity and intelligence necessary to evolve scientifically and retain knowledge".

The Secretary of State ended his presentation by encouraging businesses to invest in new technologies, to "adapt and evolve" in the digital content sphere, to not fall behind their competitors.

The Deputy Secretary of Communications of Mexico, Hector Olavarria, also participated in the inauguration. During his speech, he highlighted the growing importance of the digital content sector, which contributes "to strengthening economic and social development in Mexico". He also reported that in the global crisis in which we live today, this industry has not only maintained its level of income, but has grown considerably.

The Deputy Secretary of Communications also considered how ICTs has changed the way we interact and relate from day to day and highlighted the role of blogs, in this context, as “they are consolidated as an element that favours social cohesion". To close his speech, the Mexican spokesman invited visits to the 36 exhibitors at FICOD that relate to Mexico, and gave a video presentation of his country which reflected the high quality of the audiovisual content of Mexico.

O'Reilly advanced the concept of web 3.0

After the inaugural session the plenary presentation entitled "Economies and ecosystems of content” was given by Tim O´Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, considered the best computer publisher in the world, and creator of the Web 2.0 concept. The first part of the paper was about the first steps of his business, which began as a book publisher that soon made the leap to the e-book subsector. "We never thought we were a publisher, but a company with the mission to change the world giving special attention to entrepreneurs."

To explain his vision for the future of media, O'Reilly gave the example of the evolution of driving maps, which were initially on paper, then installed on the Net around 2005 with Google being a pioneer in this context, and before too long, according to the predictions of the expert, it will be the car itself that will carry us to our destination. Thus, he explained the of Web 3.0 concept, which he conceives as “the web of sensors, so that data passes to being moved by these sensors rather than people." Thus, the Smartphone has the capacity to provide us with comprehensive information very quickly, because it works from these sensors, it can precisely detect where the data requested by the user can be found.

Following this idea, the creator of the Web 2.0 concept praised the new methods of data storage that we have today. "We have many tools that can collect large volumes of data, store them in databases, upload them to a cloud and thereby enrich artificial intelligence", according to Tim O'Reilly.

The speaker then reflected on the transmission of knowledge through the Internet using social networks. This is an extremely fast method of transmitting information and, in the words of the speaker, "while you're composing a comment in Twitter on a particular topic, new tweets have already been generated on the same issue. We are faced with a single brain, a shared brain".

Regarding Twitter, O'Reilly also delved into the idea of ​​social networks as communities, because they are not only used to publish your own thoughts but reflect what others think through actions such as retweet. Similarly, he considered the Wikipedia site "a phenomenon worthy of study", in which not only can all users collaborate by contributing content but it includes a forum to discuss the information contained in the texts.

To close his speech, O'Reilly highlighted the dominant role of online platforms to create content and value to the online community as a whole, resulting in a more active economy that can generate any business, creating value for the ecosystem of content. The last words from the expert took the form of advice: "Create more value than you capture. The key is to advance in the digital industry thinking about the added value we bring to society".

More information: prensa@ficod.es – Tel: 91.230.52.09. www.ficod.es 

Photos available at: www.flickr.com/photos/ficodoficial