techonomy

Eric Schmidt on the demise of Google Wave

TRUCKEE, Calif.--Eric Schmidt tried to paint the failure of Google Wave as a sign that the company's innovative culture continues to take risks and aim big.

"Our policy is we try things," the Google CEO said, hours after the company announced it was halting development of the complex real-time communication tool. "We celebrate our failures. This is a company where it is absolutely OK to try something that is very hard, have it not be successful, take the learning and apply it to something new."

Schmidt said Wave, despite its lack of market success, … Read more

Google's Schmidt on Verizon and Net neutrality

TRUCKEE, Calif.--Google CEO Eric Schmidt declined to confirm a deal has been reached on Net neutrality between Google and Verizon but said his company is trying to bring together various factions.

"We're trying to find solutions that bridge between sort of the 'hard-core Net neutrality or else' view and the historic telecom view of no such agreement," Schmidt told reporters on the sidelines of the Techonomy conference following his appearance on a panel here.

Bloomberg and others reported earlier Wednesday that a deal was in the works.

Schmidt wouldn't say whether such a deal might … Read more

Google's Schmidt: Society not ready for technology

TRUCKEE, Calif.--For those concerned with privacy, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave them a few more things to start worrying about.

At a conference here Wednesday, Schmidt noted that using artificial intelligence, computers can take 14 pictures of anyone on the Internet and stand a good chance of identifying that person. Similarly, the data collected by location-based services can be used not only to show where someone is at, but to also predict with a lot of accuracy where they might be headed next.

"Pretty interesting," Schmidt said. "Good idea, Bad idea?...The technology of course is … Read more

Larry Ellison, dozens more, to give away wealth

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is among dozens of billionaires who have signed on to give away the bulk of their wealth to charity.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have been lobbying the world's megarich to sign a "Giving Pledge" to eventually donate at least half of their fortunes. The Wall Street Journal noted on Wednesday that there are now about 40 signatories to the pledge, including Ellison, filmmaker George Lucas, IAC chief Barry Diller, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, oil tycoon (and onetime Yahoo investor) T. Boone Pickens, and more.

"We've really just started, but already … Read more

Bill Joy on Sun's downfall, Microsoft's prospects, green tech (Q&A)

Though he helped start Sun Microsystems, Bill Joy has been spent the last five years thinking a lot more about solar energy than about that other Sun.

"It's early days," Joy said of the green-technology industry he now focuses on as a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins. "It's like the Internet before the Netscape IPO."

But, he said, there are needs in his new field that are quite different from those encountered by most Internet ventures.

"Most Internet companies don't make anything other than software or a Web site," Joy said. &… Read more

Ex-Fortune trio aims to spark new dialogue

Leaving a big publication to launch one's own conference and Web site isn't exactly newfangled.

But three former Fortune staffers hope that what distinguishes their event will be the scale of the problems that it attempts to address.

David Kirkpatrick, Brent Schlender, and Peter Petre are teaming up to launch Techonomy, a conference and Web site devoted to the role that technology can and must play in transforming all aspects of business and society--not just those that the Internet has already transformed.

"The idea is that technology is really the only way we are going to solve … Read more