This panel had some disappointing moments. Sam Ruby didn't arrive in Portland in time for the panel. I think that the key point came up when someone in the audience said "You guys are platform vendors, and over the years, all of us have been screwed by platform vendors". A lot of discussion focused on the value of the data as opposed to the value of the software. The other theme that was repeated was that developers want these new platform vendors to guarantee that they won't take access to their service away, or to provide a service level agreement (SLA). Both of these would be bad recommendations for a corporate attorney to make. I still feel kind of fuzzy about exactly what the appproriate areas are here.

Some time into the talk I realized that the person sitting in front of me was Dave Winer. It seems to me that Dave was disagreeing with the positions of the panelists, and was agreeing with the challenges being presented by the audience. Since I've never met Dave in person, I introduced myself and we had a pleasant conversation.