The mark of a great conference is how many seats are filled in the final panel session. With more than two-thirds of the seats still filled in the final panel session in the middle of Manhattan, where slipping away is an easy thing, it would be hard for anyone to call the SIIA IIS conference for 2005 anything but a rousing success. Mind you, the panel had something to do with it, as well. Kathleen Greenler Sexton, Chief Marketing Officer for HighBeam, put the "what's hot" question to the panel, but there were no clear gizmos or techniques that were surfacing as new leaders in content technology. Instead the panel noted that there were a mix of prominent platforms and techniques that were evolving and refining this year. Rafat Ali, Editor and Publishers of paidContent.org, pointed to a number of content technologies that are shaping the progress of paid content, including the increasing ubiquity of broadband services, the fundamental position of mobile content in Asia, home network appliances, weblogging tools ("tools [like Bloglines] are getting funding like crazy"), and audiobooks ("making more money than music online"). But most importantly Rafat worries about the "echo chamber" effect of the media's focus on technology when "adoption of technology is not as fast as you think." Or to put it another way (in my own words) it's the content, stupid. Shahid Kahn, Managing Director for BearingPoint, Inc., sees community-oriented content technology that focuses on the needs of specific sectors and users effectively is a winning card this year, including verticals such as online shopping guides (Froogle), horizontal federated searches for enterprises, web mining agents to meet highly tailored content needs and personalized search tools. Steve Wildstrom, technology columnist for Business Week, sees that weblogs are still hot and growing but will face an inevitable pulling back as the quality of output takes a beating in this mix. Steve pointed out the rise of "astroturf" weblogs - blogs that are supposed to be grass roots voices but are in fact quietly sponsored by corporations and political figures - as one factor in a weblog landscape that has as many problems with product quality differentiation as any other content sector online. With "99 percent of the public unaware of RSS," though, there's still a great deal of growth potential for weblogs. Steve also pointed out ironies in the improving overall quality of video content offerings: as the ability to deliver near-broadcast video quality comes online the need for higher production values from amateurs and small pro shops increases, except in high-demand situations such as the recent tsunami in Asia.

Probably most interesting, though, were some of the anti-technology sentiments coming from this panel. Rafat pointed to a "fatigue" factor setting in for some fundamental technologies such as instant messaging, while Shahid reflected on the relentless demand for business productivity through information technology and found it "sickening what it's done to humanity." In the final "what's important" question round Rafat observed "watch your kids and Shahid noted "watch your employees" as they opt for Web content. It's not that people want to get more distant from content technologies but they seem to be sickening of the inefficiencies and lack of thought that goes in to basic human needs in consuming content. Workflow tools, simple publishing tools and convenient form factors are just the tip of the iceberg in content technologies reaching out to people as human beings. We are in only the very infancy of a content technology revolution that is bringing people together through increasingly universal electronic content creation and consumption tools. As in the early phases of the industrial revolution the inhumanity of technology tends to reign as basic capabilities are developed, with human-oriented improvements taking sometimes decades to adapt to real human needs. We marvel at the engines of our ingenuity in the content industry, but we're just beginning to consider the real impact of a 24x7 information industry on humanity. So much to do, so much to do...

We hope that you've enjoyed our coverage of this year's SIIA IIS event. Please share our bookmarks liberally with your friends (click on the time stamp below each entry), and watch this space as Shore analysts travel the globe bringing you leading insights from the intersection of content, technology and people. Our thanks to the members and leaders of the SIIA for putting together a crackerjack conference. It will be a tough act to top next year.