 Ina's
Web Log
Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com, keeps a
diary of her visit to the eBay Developer Conference and eBay Live in San Jose. Scroll down
for the later entries.
Monday, June
20, 2005 - 4:45pm PST
The trip from Boston to San Jose is a long one. I awoke at 4 am and got settled
into my hotel at 12:30 - that's 3:30 East Coast time.
As the plane flew over San Jose, we went right over the HP Pavilion center where Meg
Whitman will give her keynote address Friday night.
I'm perfectly situated at the Hilton Hotel. The convention center is right next door.
After unpacking, I scoped out the lay of the land. Not much to see yet inside the center,
people are starting to unpack crates for eBay's booths in the Exhibit Hall. Outside,
workers are applying a sign over the front of the main convention center entrance (see
photo).
I walked past the convention center on San Carlos and took a left on Market St. Cesar
Chevez (spelling?) Park is pretty - there are lots of trees, including those California
palm trees, and the weather is perfect - I'm guessing in the 80s, but with a beautiful
breeze.
A block down is the Fairmont Hotel where the Developer's Conference is taking place. (The
area behind the Fairmont looks interesting with some restaurants...) I met Matt from
eBay's PR firm and picked up my badge. But since I was feeling grungy and tired, I left.
As I got to the traffic light on San Carlos, someone called my name. It was Brian from
Zoovy. He and Patti got here early, so we went to the lobby of their hotel and talked shop
(what's eBay up to, basically). (See photo).
I got back to my hotel and Nikki Ballard arrived. She's our Editor for the eBay Live
coverage and will be coordinating writers, proofreading and editing and doing some writing
herself. I met Nikki online and met her in person at the very first eBay Live conference
in 2002. I think it's very fitting we're here in San Jose at eBay's fourth conference,
given it's eBay's hometown and they are celebrating their 10-year
anniversary.
The news doesn't stop, so after dinner, I'll be working on Newsflash articles for
tomorrow. (I'll let you know how the restaurant is.)
Monday, June 20, 2005 -
9:35pm PST
I caught up with
Nikki Ballard and we walked over to meet Tom and Barb Shaughnessy at McCormick &
Schmick's
Seafood Restaurant. They are from this area and recommended Hawg's initially, but it's
closed on Mondays. M&S is right beside the Fairmont Hotel and we enjoyed our meal. We
realized all four of us had attended eBay Live #1 in Anaheim in 2002, so the coverage at
this week's event is coming from experienced folks!
Tom drove us to Zanotto's Italian market at 38 South Second Street after dinner. (There
are no convenience stores around the convention center that I can find, you have to walk a
couple of blocks.) You can get fruit, wine, deli, and grocery items.
Downtown San Jose is very nice. There are a few tall buildings with corporate names that
help you figure out where you are and which direction you should be headed. Tom said
downtown SJ used to be a bit seedy but they have done a very nice revitalization job over
the past (ten?) years.
It's after mid-night in my time-zone, and I have to post some press releases to the site,
so I'll sign off for now. But expect more coverage and photos tomorrow as Nikki and I
cover the developer's conference at the Fairmont Hotel (Meg Whitman is giving a keynote at
9am).
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Tuesday, June 21, 2005 -
11:30am PST
I woke up at 5:30, but seemed to be used to the time
change from East Coast to West Coast. It was off to the Fairmont Hotel for networking over
coffee, fruit and danish. I chatted with a local developer who said eBay's deadline for
developers to move to the new schema (june 2006) would put pressure on some third-party
vendors.
Day one of the eBay Developer's Conference kicked off with a series of keynotes by Greg
Isaacs, Director of the eBay Developer Program; Jeff Jordan, President of PayPal; Dave
Nielsen, Manager of PayPal Developer Network. As I had guessed in Sunday's editorial, eBay
introduced a way for developers to collaborate in an open-source environment. Greg Isaacs
said eBay had seeded the site, codebase.ebay.com, with an application for extending eBay
onto Tivo. (Yes, Tivo the television recording device.)
Greg said developers could go in and further develop the application and give it away or
develop it commercially. But the application as developed on the codebase site is up for
grabs by anyone (that is what open source means). In an interview with Greg Isaacs
afterwards, he told me if an application violates eBay's Trust & Safety rules, they
would pull it, though he doesn't foresee that happening. It's easy to see why eBay would
be excited about open-source development of applications, it's a lot harder to see the
benefits for developers, although the ones I talked to seemed to feel it was a positive
move.
Greg addressed the schema in his keynote, and pointed to a white paper in the conference
packet that showed how Infopia had migrated already. I haven't had a chance to talk
to developers about how much pressure this will put on them.
Jeff Jordan took the stage looking very presidential, and explained that PayPal's mission
is to create a new global standard for online payments. He said the potential for Merchant
Services is tremendous. Merchant services is what allows ecommerce websites to accept
payments from PayPal users. PayPal announced some interesting services this week, I'll
take a closer look at them in future issues of AuctionBytes.
Greg graciously sat down for an interview with me and answered my questions. You can hear
the audio portion above. This was my first official pod-blog entry, thanks Greg!
Later in the press room I had difficulties getting a wi-fi connection. I asked someone
standing nearby for help, and it turned out to be one of eBay's most talented Geeks, Adam
Trachtenberg, though he said he's been told not to give technical advice. I told Adam I
would blog it if my computer crashed, but it's running like a charm, LOL.
Nikki Ballard, my partner in crime this week, is a terrific observer, making insightful
comments throughout the day. It's a pleasure to have her talents on hand - she's chief
editor for the AuctionBytes eBay Live coverage and has also taken some photos which you
can see in the photo section. Thanks, Nikki for letting me drag you from LA for the week.
Nikki and I had lunch at the developers conference, and I sat with Daniel Olson of
Advanced Internet Applications and David Platt of Infopia. David told me about some
exciting developments at Infopia to be announced during eBay Live.
I sat down with Wayne Yeager of Sellathon and Kenn Cook, Sellathon's CTO (see audio
interview above). And later I interviewed Anthony Sukow, Andrew Sukow and Adam of Terapeak
(also see audio interview above). Things are happening with eBay data - they have opened
the floodgates to information. Metrics like Average Selling Price and Sellthrough rates
are numbers to live and die for on eBay, and tools from Terapeak (and Andale and
DeepAnalysis) are now available to eBay sellers.
I'm happy to announce that I just finished writing a book about eBay data-analysis tools.
The publisher is not ready to have me publicize it yet, but it will be out in December and
I'll tell you lots more when I get the green light. (Suffice it to say I'll be at the
McGraw-Hill booth on Saturday at 10 am with other authors answering questions from
attendees.)
Today's Internet.com publication wrote about eBay's session on data tools at the
developers conference. http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/essentials/ebay/article.php/3514556
The session they reference, "Harnessing eBay's Transactional Data," was
Standing Room Only. While there is a lot of interest in the program, it's expensive
(commercial applications cost $4,000/year for each subcategory plus a 25% revenue share),
but expect to see more applications using eBay data!!!
At 2:30 I met Kevin Ferguson and Brendan Coveney of 4D at the Tech Museum. They are
launching a brand new auction management service at eBay Live called MarketBlast, based on
the well known 4D database management software, and gave me a demo. I'm completely
impressed with what I saw and am eager to hear what people think once they start using it.
Disclosure: 4D is sponsoring AuctionBytes during eBay Live (and are also sponsors of the
eBay Developers Conference).
Brendan is from Ireland and has lived all over the world, a very interesting guy. His wife
Emma imported items and sold them on eBay, so he had to ensure that MarketBlast met with
her approval before launching. Before I knew it, two hours had gone by and we went back to
the Developer's Conference to listen to keynotes, Star Developer awards (see newsflash
story - it was amusing to see Yahoo go up on stage to accept an award) and partake of
Mexican appetizers and open bar.
Everyone wants a piece of eBay and has an idea for a tool to make selling and buying
easier, and Day one of this year's developers conference was full of energy and
excitement. Despite the fact that eBay is controlling and wants money, developers are
eager to jump in and abide by the rules. Expect to see lots of innovative products coming
now that eBay has improved Web services and is welcoming developers into the fold.
Be sure and check out the eBay Live Blog
http://ebaynews.blogs.com/
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Wednesday, June
22, 2005 - 11:30pm PST
Wednesday 4pm
Jetlag hit me Wednesday morning, so I skipped the morning Dev Con sessions. I met Rockin
Robin Rosaaen for lunch at the Grill Restaurant. Robin is a huge fan of Elvis and is a
celebrity in her own right due to her extensive knowledge of Elvis memorabilia. She's been
on Geraldo, Oprah, Joan Rivers and many other TV programs.
Robin is also a former eBay employee with an interesting story (see audio cast above).
Robin was employee #41 and was laid off after 4 years with eBay. She calls the current
eBay culture a Stepford wives (in reference to the Stepford Wives), and finds fraud
rampant in the Elvis collectibles category. But her passion for the early eBay is clear.
I then met with an entrepreneur and his venture capitalist, one of the most famous VCs in
Silicon Valley. I did an audio cast of the two, and will run the interview on Friday - so
stay tuned for an exclusive interview and news.
While I've been interviewed plenty of times, I've never been the interviewer, it's harder
than you think!! I hope you are enjoying listening, so far I've interviewed Greg Isaacs of
eBay, CEOs of Sellathon and Terapeak, Rockin Robin and --.
Wednesday 11 pm
The keynote sessions of the Developers Conference were interesting. Some tidbits - eBay
will be releasing RSS feeds of Stores. Users can subscribe to feeds from their favorite
ebay Store, including marketing messages, and then eBay will release RSS feeds of
classifieds. (No further clarification, but they likely mean Kijiji.com.) Julia Wilkinson
has written an article on the keynote event, look for her article on Newsflash.
I went to Gordon Biersch, a local brewery, where David Nielsen was throwing a party to
celebrate the launch of the PayPal Solutions Directory. I talked to Joao Braganca of Ring
King Jewelry. He sells on eBay and develops his own tools to list. He said he learned a
ton at the conference that will enable him to save time and make money. Other interesting
people I met include local San Jose developer Glenn Mandelkern and Dynamic Ventures'
Robert Hutchinson.
From there I went to the Hotel Montgomery where eBay Live attendees were gathering to
throw their own party in advance of the conference. The "Meet & Greet" was
crowded with buyers and sellers and vendors, including BuySafe, Zoovy, Overstock, as well
as Crystal from OTWA and Andale, Marsha Collier, Patti Louise, Sheri (Trainz.com) and way
too many to mention.
I then went to the Overstock Lounge (O-Lounge) at the hotel Sainte Claire and met Holly
McDonald-Korth, J.T. and others. On my way back to my own hotel, I met some folks from
Truition. It's hard to take two steps in San Jose without running into eBayers.
_________________
Thursday, June 23, 2005 -
12:30pm PST
I went to eBay's annual meeting at 8am in Santa Clara
this morning with Phil Davies our photographer (he got some great pics, they'll be on the
website soon if not already, including some of Pierre).
No surprises really at the meeting, more attendance than in last few years (about 120?).
And some very interesting questions - I wrote it up in Newsflash article, which has a link
to the audiocast on eBay's website.
I was surprised to see hwo many people were up at 7:15 this am. When I got back to the
convention center around 10, there was real excitement in the air, and the exhibit hall
was buzzing.
eBay's big news today is the ProStores. This is the offering based on Kurant StoreSense
technology. They rebranded it and added some tiers. Go to prostores.com or Booth 645 to
learn more. There is a nice sheet that explains the pricing and features.
ProStores offers domain registration and launching to eBay Stores and eBay.com - but not
to other marketplaces. As I had predicted, this is a way for eBay to try and keep
independents from launching to other marketplaces (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m06/i14/s05).
We have an interesting thread going on about it in the AuctionBytes forums. http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=15376
Everything seems to be very well organized and going smoothly from the brief time I saw
this am, I'm off to check out more!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
- 12:30pm PST
I went to the Alibaba reception in room 1826 of the
Hilton and spoke to Brian Wong (see audiocast above) and Annie Xu. The Alibaba orange bags
are everywhere, reminiscent of the Paypal tshirts at eBay Live #1 in Anaheim.
I then went to the O-Lounge (Overstock Auctions' reception area) at the Hotel Sainte
Claire to meet with Holly MacDonald-Korth.
Either things are really spread out, or attendance appears to be down from last year. I
have a request in to eBay for the official count. (A few people commented on this.)
I keep running into interesting people - authors Joe Sinclair and Phil Dunn, Ann and Scott
Prock of the Powerseller Report, and a ton of others that I don't have time to list!
Phil Dunn's publisher is launching his book at the show that he co-wrote with Amy
Balsbaugh and Janelle Elms.
It's time to head to the HP Pavilion, where they are serving free food and entertainment
until 6 when Meg Whitman takes the stage to do her keynote address.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
- 11:30pm PST
I caught up with Phil Davies of Tias.com this afternoon. Phil has been taking fantastic
photos for AuctionBytes.com (not the ones on this blog page - go to the photo section).
Tom Shaughnessy, photographer extraordinaire, is also taking photos for AuctionBytes, and
he's writing up an article about this year's photo classes at eBay Live.
We caught up with Tom and Barb at the Keynote session at the HP Pavilion.Lots of news, see
the write-up (It's 11:30 and it's not written yet, oops. If I look tired tomorrow, you'll
know it's all these late nights in front of the computer.)
There are so many things I want to mention, before I forget:
There will be a segment on Good Morning America at 8am Friday morning (today) on eBay
Live.
The Tonight Show is doing an eBay Live version of the"Stuff I found on eBay
segment" with Jay Leno, Channel 11 in San Jose.
Shameless self-promotion: I will be at the McGraw-Hill "Meet the Experts"
Q&A Session on Saturday at 10:00. I'm in good company, with nine McGraw-Hill authors.
As noted in a previous blog entry, I wrote a book on eBay data-analysis tools due out in
December. McGraw-Hill will be hosting another session called "How to Sell Anything on
eBay…and Make a Fortune" at 2 pm.
I was supposed to post about a DSI-sponsored powerseller breakfast and I have been so
crazed I haven't, stop by the DSI booth 621 or check the PowerSeller Board discussion
thread about it.
Today is the PESA charity at eBay's Great America event, and Mpire's Charity auctions will
be ending soon, proceeds go to DOUA and you can bid on Banner ads on AuctionBytes. My
goodness, I just checked and it has zero bids and is a steal at $349:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7524198369
I haven't been doing my homework and telling people about it.
The keynote sessions were interesting. Meg Whitman actually acknowledged there is life
(and ecommerce) off-eBay. It was strange to hear her use that term several times tonight.
Bill Cobb blew my mind with his announcement of some changes to feedback policies (see
write-up).
The show feels a bit flat to me today. People are definitely having a good time, but
there's something just a little strange about it. Perhaps it's just me and tomorrow I will
feel differently.
Tomorrow promises to be another big day.
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Friday, June
24, 2005 - 00:00am PST
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