This next keynote is presented by David Sacks, Founder & CEO, Geni, Inc & Yammer, Inc, Producer of "Thank You For Smoking" and the Former COO of Paypal. For those of you unfamiliar with Yammer, it is a microblogging service launched in September 2008. Like Twitter, it allows users to post updates of their activities, follow others' updates, tag content, and create memes. Unlike Twitter, Yammer focuses on businesses, and only individuals with the same email domain can join a given network.

David begins his presentation quickly discussing the development and launch of Yammer at TechCrunch 50 which they won last fall. Now he's highlighting the importance of Software as a Service (SaaS). Now SaaS is something looked at often by the internal technology managers as they consider their enterprise software options. What has happened with the Web, is the Enterprise Software Providers move away from stand-alone versions but create a web-based application that updates and maintains itself through a web connection than an actual installation at the user's desktop. Having worked with internal technology companies, this change in enterprise software offerings has been a monumental shift. Naturally, from a B2C perspective, this is the very nature of most web-based offerings and functionality.

Now David is looking at the concept of Channels vs Platforms. Channels are the mechanisms that information is shared, such as Email, IM and SMS, but using Channels means that the content is siloed and limited in reach. But using Platforms means that such information is an expanded distribution that reaches a broader user base, while making it easily available to other who did not receive it, but who can search for it and can then become and ongoing recipient of such information.


Now David is talking about some case studies around the use of Yammer in specific clients. One is Deloitte, where to develop a new marketing slogan the asked all of their employees to submit suggestions. Within 24 hours they collected over 1500 suggestions with one ultimately being selected.

Ultimately the concept is that a tool such as Yammer, creates the easy to use experience, recognizable and accessible to an internal enterprise's employees, and yet maintains the necessary security and controls for the company.


Updated