Halsey Minor, a successful Internet entrepreneur, who is most well-known as the founder, Chairman and CEO of CNET Networks, delivered an energetic speech, despite the fact that he admitted he recently turned 40. He spoke of the youth culture that fueled the dotcom boom and the unbridled enthusiasm of the under-30 crowd who, in his view, are able to respond quickly to complex problems because they are not encumbered by an adherence to the status quo. I'd go further to say that some of the unbridled enthusiasm comes from having no substantial experience base on which to develop what I once heard Professor Woodie Flowers from MIT describe as a "wisdom filter" to weed the bad ideas from the good.

Minor's new venture, Grand Central Communications, operates on the principle that users don't want to own software and be responsible for loading it on a specific device. Instead, users want to access software where and when they need it. To paraphrase Minor: running software isn't a competitive advantage; how you put the software to work to help you gain a competitive advantage is where the value is found. The same holds true for content.