Can we change the world with WebRTC?

On Friday, the Kranky Geek WebRTC Event is set to go. We’d originally conceived this as a smallish event, a simple desire to educate those who wanted to know about WebRTC as a technology. My reason was simple, I’m tired of the way we communicate. Emails, PowerPoint documents, phone calls and web collaboration sessions. Inefficient & largely ineffective.  We’ve lived in this mobius loop far too long. WebRTC and what comes next (because there is always a next) was a new step towards a higher plateau of how you and I communicate.

I figured we’d get maybe 50 people to show up. Tsahi felt we should shoot for 70. He’s such a dreamer. We had no money motivation, no hidden agenda, no idea how to get people interested, we weren’t looking for consulting gigs, neither of us seeking fame, frankly truth be told, we had no idea what we were doing. But we felt strongly as technology mavens, this was something we wanted a broader group to know about. We pressed on.

So this afternoon, as the number registered for Kranky Geek climbed about 475, I suddenly wondered what I was going to tell this group in my introduction (Google can figure out where to put them all). The horror set in as I realized I really didn’t have much to say. We have a cadre of experts assembled prepared to provide an undergraduate degree of content to those attending. I’m outgunned for sure. I’ll stay out of the way of the professionals.

But for all the talk about technology, application is more important. If you’re going to change the world, you can’t simply replicate the Amazon MayDay function and declare victory. A pop-up chat window may be a $200m revenue business for LivePerson but is that all we’re hoping from WebRTC and future technologies. A bunch of communication trinkets?

So I’ve decided to talk about the future of communications because everything is going to change.  The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on the fighting the old, but on building the new (according to Socrates). Friday it will be all about new. Hope to see you there.