Registration Opens for O'Reilly ETech Conference

For Immediate Release
October 24, 2003
For more information, contact:
Suzanne Axtell (707) 827-7114 or suzanne-AT-oreilly.com

The 2004 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference:
"To Shape the Future, You Have to Be There."

Sebastopol, CA--From February 9-12, 2004, hackers, alpha geeks, bloggers,
researchers, developers, CTOs, entrepreneurs, and educators will descend
on the Westin Horton Plaza in San Diego, CA to share their common
interests and uncommon passion for ideas and the promise of the future at
the third annual O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (ETech).

"Alpha geeks and early adopters show us the technologies that hold the
potential for widespread adoption," says O'Reilly & Associates Founder and
President Tim O'Reilly.  "In fact, people you've never heard of are
changing the world. To shape the future, you have to be there. This
conference presents the future in process, as it's forming."

The ETech Conference committee was faced with an unprecedented number of
exceptional proposals to consider this year. "Computing innovations are
coming down the pike at an extraordinary rate, from not-necessarily
traditional sources, heading in unforeseen directions, and being used in
unexpected ways," notes conference chair Rael Dornfest.

Some of the themes that will be explored at this year's ETech are:
- Social software, representing and supporting groups of people, from
Hiptop Nation to weblogs
- Mobility--what's happening with data, devices, and communication now
that they're freed from the desktop and broadcast models of the past
decade?
- The untethered world of ad hoc networking made possible by wireless
technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular, and Rendezvous
- Post-browser interfaces to data and services utilizing rich internet
applications
- Navigational devices, geospacial annotation tools, visualization
software, and proximity sensors
- Hardware--how it's being poked, prodded, and repurposed by hackers

IRobot Co-Founder Helen Greiner, at work on the next Mars rover, and Marc
Smith of Microsoft, who will demonstrate tools that catalyze collective
action, will give keynote presentations. Other intriguing people speaking
at this year's conference include:
- Xbox hacker Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, on reverse engineering techniques
to legitimately gain design intelligence about existing products
- Russell Beattie, mobile applications developer for phones and PDAs
- Eric Bonabeau, who uses evolutionary computation to detect weaknesses in
complex systems
- The Walt Disney Internet Group, leveraging RSS for collaboration and
massive content delivery
- The BBC's Priya Prakash analyzes the impact of wireless service in
emerging markets
- Author and researcher J.C. Herz examines the technologies percolating
through the Pentagon
- Economics professor Edward Castronova looks at the future of cyberspace
economies
- Fiona Romeo creates social software for children at the BBC
- GeoURL's Joshua Schachter annotates the landscape with geospacial
markup and distributed geographic annotation

The O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference is an exceptional meeting
place for people keenly interested in how technology shapes the world in
which we live. Every conference participant--attendees, speakers,
exhibitors--can be a profound catalyst for change, influencing new
applications, networks, and culture. Gather with lead users, forward
thinkers, and technology activists at ETech to vet the projects and ideas
that will radically alter the future of computing, communication,
lifestyle, business, and education.

Comments about the 2003 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference:

"The annual conference has become one of the key events geeks attend to
tune in to the vibrations of trends on the industry's edges, where legions
of software developers...are knitting new bits of Net together."
--Scott Rosenberg, Salon, April 2003

"But for hundreds of do-it-yourself technology developers drawn to the
O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference here during the past week,
prospects have never seemed brighter...this is no fringe-fest, judging
from who attends. Software architects from BEA Systems, IBM and Microsoft,
as well as computer pioneers such as Alan Kay, who helped coin the term
'personal computer,' and Lotus founder Mitch Kapor came to prove they
still have what it takes to be a geek..."
--Eric Auchard, Reuters, April 2003

"The O'Reilly conferences are the gold standard for drawing together a
critical mass of thought leaders."
--Steve Gillmor, CRN, April 2003

"Call it a Davos for geeks...the conference is an umbrella symposium for
all the brand-new, up-and-coming technologies that may or may not make a
dent on the future. It is one of the primary gatherings of all the geeks
and nerds busy inventing tomorrow, and those seeking to make a buck off
their ideas."
--Leander Kahney, Wired, April 2003

Additional Resources:

For details about the 2004 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference,
visit:
http://conferences.oreilly.com/etech/

To register for a press pass, go to:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/28/press.html

Media coverage from the 2003 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference can
be found at: http://www.oreillynet.com/et2003/

For information on being a media sponsor, contact Catherine Dale at (707)
827-7184 or cat-AT-oreilly.com.

For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at the
conference, contact Andrew Calvo at (707) 827-7176, or
andrewc-AT-oreilly.com.

About O'Reilly
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computer technologies. The company's books, conferences, and web sites
bring to light the knowledge of technology innovators. O'Reilly books,
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