by Brian Solis

Al Gore closed the Web 2.0 Summit with a powerful, inspiring, and uniting keynote that earned two standing ovations and honorary residence in the hearts and minds of Silicon Valley’s catalysts for innovation and change.

He opened the session in response to the first of two standing ovations with a sense of humor, but also a reaffirmation of what brought us together dating back to his Presidential bid in 2000, “Wow, what a week.” The room erupted into applause.

“It couldn’t have happened without the World Wide Web, without the Internet,” Gore acknowledged.

Al Gore documented this election as nothing short of, “the electrifying redemption of America’s revolutionary declaration that all human beings are created equal.”

“It would not have been possible without the additional empowerment of individuals to use knowledge as a source of power that has come with the Internet,” he proclaimed.

His vision for the Web is its sense of “purpose,” which is how we can take the evolution of not only the technology that defines it, but also the people who use it to communicate with one another. “I believe Web 2.0 has to have a purpose,” Gore observed.

Gore envisions a sense of purpose and promise in what he called “World 2.0:” Web 2.0 used for social betterment.

“Just as Barack Obama’s election would’ve been impossible without the new dialogue and new ways of interacting, the only way climate change is going to be solved is by addressing the democracy crisis, and the country hit a great blow for victory this week, but we have to take this issue and raise it in the awareness of everyone,” Gore said.

Gore continued later during his interview with conference organizers Tim O’Reilly and John Batelle, “I think that it is very much in its infancy, barely beginning, and I think that we are not many years away from television sort of sinking into the digital world and becoming a part of it.”

His continued “purpose” is to advance the democratization of media, where people are in control of not only what they consume, but are also empowered to create, distribute, and influence through media.

Al Gore

More at PR 2.0.

For more pictures from Al Gore’s presentation at Web 2.0 Summit, please visit my album on flickr.

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by Brian Solis

MySpace Music threw an exclusive party during the Web 2.0 Summit that fused Los Angeles style with San Francisco architecture. Contrary to other reports, this party was not only one of the highlights of the Summit, but one of the more memorable parties associated with any tech conference in recent history.

Thrown at the old mint in San Francisco, MySpace invited Lionel Richie and DJ AM to entertain the anxious and excited crowd. Not only were the invigorating conversations and connections abundant throughout the entire mint, laughter and fun filled the air while the geeks also danced the night away until the early hours of the morning.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Lionel Richie

DJ AM

DJ AM

Chris DeWolfe and Tom Foremski

Bryan Thatcher of Empressr and Michael Birch, Co-Founder of Bebo

iJustine – Justine Ezarik

Ellen McGirt of Fast Company

Caroline McCarthy of CNET

Gabe Rivera of Techmeme

Cathy Brooks of Seesmic and Gregarious Greg Narain of BlueWhaleLabs

Irina Slutsky of GETV and Nick O’Neill

Brady Forrest of O’Reilly

Dave McClure

Hammer, Ron Conway, Dave Morin

Tara Hunt, Jennifer Hussein Pahlka

Joseph Smarr and John McCrea of Plaxo

MC Hammer of DanceJam

Janetti Chon

Cupcakes!

Ben Metcalfe and Cathy Brooks

Brandee Barker of Facebook

Jacob Mullins & Team VentureBeat: Anthony Ha, Dean Takahashi and MG Siegler

Dean Takahashi and Brian Solis

John Furrier

Brandee Barker, Heather Harde, Mike Maser

MG Siegler and Leah Culver

Peter Pham and Mike Morin

Debbie Landa, Kristen O’Brien (Dealmaker Media) and Shay Nowick

Sarah Delman Brown and Cathy Brooks

For more pictures from the MySpace Music party, please visit my album on flickr.

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by Brian Solis

At the Web 2.0 Summit, Microsoft announced its new BizSpark program to help transform today’s most promising startups into tomorrow’s most successful businesses. Microsoft and the BizSpark team celebrated with an official launch party at Ozumo in San Francisco. The event was one of the highlights of the week. The ambiance was a conductor for incredibly enthusiastic conversations fortified by positive spirits.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Karen Hartline of Mashable

Dave McClure and Heather Harde

Gregarious Greg Narain

100 hundred bottles of beer on the wall…

Michael Sheehan of GoGrid

Jacob Mullins of BizSpark

Gabe Rivera and Nick O’Neill

Larry Chiang

Cynthia Johanson, Yahoo Brickhouse

Brian Solis

Barney Pell of Powerset, Larry Chiang and Sarah Austin

Ozumo

Karen Hartline, Marianne Masculino, Tara Hunt, Aubrey Sabala (Jeff Clavier in the background)

Magician

Microsoft’s BizSpark will continue the action.

If you’re in NY on 11/11, join us (RSVP Below)!

Microsoft BizSpark and The TechSet, present “Ignition” an event for entrepreneurs, investors and those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem for helping startups flourish.

Join Stephanie Agresta, Brian Solis, Microsoft staff and partners at One Little West NYC from 8-10pm. Free hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and valuable networking will be served. Plus, you will have the opportunity to meet some of the most influential technologists around. All attendees can participate in a “twitter raffle” to win an XBox 360 Elite.

RSVP on Eventbrite.

For more pictures from the Microsoft BizSpark launch party, please visit my album on flickr.

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by Brian Solis

Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) was interviewed by John Batelle during a premier session at The Web 2.0 Summit currently underway in San Francisco.

The conversation was interesting and entertaining, but not as revealing as his previous live discussions.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

John Batelle

Mark Zuckerberg

The Adidas sandals have been officially retired

The Audience

For the blow by blow action, see Michael Arrington’s post over at TechCrunch.

For pictures more pictures from Web 2.0 Summit visite my albums on Flickr: Day One and Day Two.

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