Zennström stepped down from Skype ahead of schedule

Yesterday SIME:s keynote speaker and industry hero, Niklas Zennström stepped down from the role as CEO of Skype, the company he founded with Janus Friis four years ago. This was ahead of the scheduled work-through period after the acquisition by eBay.

Shortly before the public announcement of his departure, Zennstrom agreed to give an exclusive English-language interview to Thomas Crampton (our favorite SIME-moderator). Zennström has also agreed to speak with Dagens Industri (but the interview has not been published yet). Good job Thomas!

From the interview: "Top on Zennstrom’s Internet wish list: A solution to the deluge of email. 'Everyone is getting lost in their in-boxes. I would really like to see some innovation there, please.'" Read the full story on Thomas' blog.

Mr Netocracy: Alexander Bard

Yes, you will have a chance to meet your favorite rebel and Master of Netocracy at SIME2007!

We asked Alexander to answer a few questions for our readers:

1. What is really important right now?

The world economy, as always. And inventing a more intelligent social community tool than the stupid underclass nonsense called Facebook.

2. What are your expectations on SIME?

Networking, networking, networking, and getting some new insights I never had before. Plus of course going home afterwards with some new delightful little gadget in my pocket (beata: hint to sponsors?). Let's not underrate the value of fetichism.

3. What can European entrepreneurs learn from their American counterparts?

Being more daring and updated, for a start. When it comes to entrepreneurship, it is currently American entrepreneurs who have more to learn from their European brethren rather than the other way round. And everybody should learn a thing or two from Korean and Indian entrepreneurs.

4. How can Internet contribute beyond the corporate world?

It does already. People LIVE through the internet these days. The world is already virtual and symbolic.

Alexander Bard is a writer, a founder of the Netocrats.com, a non-profit organization aimed to build the new informational society and a member of the band BWO (Bodies without Organs).

FAQ: Is Martin Varsavsky coming to SIME07?

One of the most frequently asked questions is "Is Martin Varsavsky coming to SIME07?". Well, of course he is! SIME wouldn't be SIME without the charismatic serial entrepreneur from Argentina. He will charm you with his wit, wisdom and humour and hopefully present some new hot startups.

Tomight the SIME team is in Copenhagen having dinner with Martin's son Tom, 12. Tom is participating at a SIME-related event in Copenhagen tomorrow. Let's see if we can persuade him to join his Dad at SIME07 in Stockholm!

Danny Rimer - the shining star in Europe’s VC industry

You’ve met some of the most interesting startups of the web at SIME. Now you will have a chance to meet Danny Rimers at SIME07, the guy who has been an early investor in many of these companies - Netvibes, Fon, Stardoll and Rebtel to name just a few.

Danny is a partner at the VC firm Index Ventures in London. He was brought up in Geneva, was educated at Harvard and then spent seven years working in Silicon Valley, which has given him a broad view of the world. "I'm always thinking as an outsider, and I'm always mindful of whether a company can be impactful on a global basis. Frankly, I'm paranoid about anyone anywhere who could be a competitive threat”, he says in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.

Danny currently serves on a number of boards including FON, Joost, MySQL, Oanda, Spot Runner, Stardoll and Viagogo. He previously was a director of KVS (now Veritas), Skype (now eBay) and Last.fm (now CBS).

Social networking - a lock-in strategy?

Keeping users locked in a specific social community is a dominant strategy. The opposite would be open networks where people could easily move between networks.

Should social networks be more open? Do traditional users (like me) care enough that our data is controlled by the social communities, like Facebook, MySpace and a Small World (Speaker SIME06)? For those of you who feel locked-in, and who want to take your identity wherever you like, Tariq Krim of Netvibes (Speaker SIME06) is offering a new Facebook Widget. It allows users to access their Facebook info on Netvibes (open system).

Is this discussion important? Mark Canter of PeopleAggregator argues that "History will prove that by freeing the end-user’s data, a distributed mesh of inter-connecting social networks and blogging platforms will create an ecosystem in which ALL software vendors and plaforms can participate in - equally". Read Mark's excellent blog entry: "The Chess game of social networking".

What do you think?

(Thanks to Jockum Hultén, Snowball Captial for the theme).

SIME@Burning Man

Our favorite ex-scientist of Amazon, Andreas Weigend (SIME speaker 2006 and 2007), will be at the Burning Man festival this weekend. It is the craziest, grandest and most spectacular of events and we are eagerly looking forward to a report!

Burning Man is an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. It has grown from a small group of people gathering spontaneously to a community of over 40,000 people. The event is held in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, 120 miles north of Reno, Nevada and has always been a favorite of the internet community on the West Coast. The climax of the event is the burning of the effigy, a large sculpture of a human figure, on Saturday night. After the weekend, all participants leave the site, having left no trace. SIME is always aspiring to create some of the buzz, glamour and originality of the Burning Man event!

Esther Dyson on Facebook

Esther Dyson in a vertical wind tunnel.
Photo courtesy of Jon Gales

We are extremely happy to welcome Esther Dyson to SIME 2007. She was our key note speaker at SIME 1998 and is still one of the most important and visionary thinkers of the Internet age. Esther manages to speak the truth and to be heard when and where it matters.

Here are some of her reflections on Facebook (from her blog):
"Facebook supports the attention economy -- as opposed to the purchase intention economy. Think of Facebook not so much as information exchange as a place where you can establish and spread your presence, and get attention back. That's the currency of the future ... and it may or may not be directly exchangeable for money".