Tim O'Reilly

Sebastopol, California

Areas of Expertise:

Web 2.0
open source

emerging technologies

Biography

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. In addition to Foo Camps ("Friends of O'Reilly" Camps, which gave rise to the "un-conference" movement), O'Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the Web 2.0 Summit, the Web 2.0 Expo, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the Gov 2.0 Summit, and the Gov 2.0 Expo. Tim's blog, the O'Reilly Radar, "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim's long-term vision for his company is to change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators. In addition to O'Reilly Media, Tim is a founder of Safari Books Online, a pioneering subscription service for accessing books online, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, an early-stage venture firm.

Books

The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly , Sarah Milstein May 2009 Print: $19.99 Ebook: $15.99	Free is More Complicated than You Think by Tim O'Reilly April 2008 Print: $39.95
Windows XP in a Nutshell by David A. Karp , Tim O'Reilly , Troy Mott Second Edition January 2005 Print: $44.99	Unix Power Tools by Shelley Powers , Jerry Peek , Tim O'Reilly , Mike Loukides Third Edition October 2002 Print: $74.99 Ebook: $55.99 (4) (Read Reviews)
UNIX Power Tools by Jerry Peek , Mike Loukides , Tim O'Reilly , et al. October 2002 OUT OF PRINT	Windows XP in a Nutshell by David A. Karp , Tim O'Reilly , Troy Mott April 2002 OUT OF PRINT (5) (Read Reviews)
Peer-to-Peer by Nelson Minar , Marc Hedlund , Clay Shirky , Tim O'Reilly , Dan Bricklin , David Anderson , Jeremie Miller , Adam Langley , Gene Kan , Alan Brown , Marc Waldman , Lorrie Faith Cranor , Aviel Rubin , Roger Dingledine , Michael Freedman , David Molnar , Rael Dornfest , Dan Brickley , Theodore Hong , Richard Lethin , Jon Udell , Nimisha Asthagiri , Walter Tuvell , Brandon Wiley February 2001 Print: $29.95 (4) (Read Reviews)	Windows 98 in a Nutshell by Tim O'Reilly , Troy Mott , Walter Glenn August 1999 Print: $44.99 (4) (Read Reviews)
Windows 95 in a Nutshell by Tim O'Reilly , Troy Mott June 1998 OUT OF PRINT	UNIX PowerTools by Jerry Peek , Tim O'Reilly , Mike Loukides Second Edition August 1997 OUT OF PRINT (5) (Read Reviews)
Using & Managing UUCP by Ed Ravin , Tim O'Reilly , Dale Dougherty , Grace Todino-Gonguet January 1996 OUT OF PRINT	Volume 3: X Window System User's Guide by Valerie Quercia , Tim O'Reilly Fourth Edition June 1994 OUT OF PRINT
X Users Guide Motif R5 by Valerie Quercia , Tim O'Reilly Second Edition June 1994 Print: $34.95	Volume 4: X Toolkit Intrinsics Programming Manual by Adrian Nye , Tim O'Reilly Third Edition August 1992 OUT OF PRINT
X Toolkit Intrinsics Prog Vol 4M by Tim O'Reilly , Adrian Nye Second Edition August 1992 Print: $34.95	The X Window System in a Nutshell Second Edition May 1992 OUT OF PRINT
Managing UUCP and Usenet by Grace Todino-Gonguet , Tim O'Reilly Tenth Edition June 1990 OUT OF PRINT (5) (Read Reviews)	termcap and terminfo by John Strang , Linda Mui , Tim O'Reilly April 1988 Print: $29.95 (Read Reviews)

Articles

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Why Is the Web the Way It Is Today?
Publish Date: Dec. 15, 2005In what direction could the internet have gone if it were not for the FSF/GNU movement and how would the internet have looked today? Tim O'Reilly offers his perspective. What Is Web 2.0
Publish Date: Sep. 30, 2005Defining just what Web 2.0 means (the term was first coined at a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International, which also spawned the Web 2.0 Conference), still engenders much disagreement. Some decry it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, while others have accepted it as the new conventional wisdom. Tim O'Reilly attempts to clarify just what we meant by Web 2.0, digging into what it means to view the Web as a platform and which applications fall squarely under its purview, and which do not. What Is Web 2.0
Publish Date: Sep. 30, 2005Defining just what Web 2.0 means (the term was first coined at a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International, which also spawned the Web 2.0 Conference), still engenders much disagreement. Some decry it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, while others have accepted it as the new conventional wisdom. Tim O'Reilly attempts to clarify just what we meant by Web 2.0, digging into what it means to view the Web as a platform and which applications fall squarely under its purview, and which do not. Is Perl Still Relevant?
Publish Date: Jul. 7, 2005With the emergence of .NET, J2EE, Python, PHP, et. al, has Perl lost its niche as a scripting glue language? Tim O'Reilly comments. Books That Have Shaped How I Think
Publish Date: Jul. 7, 2005In 2004, I greatly expanded and updated this text for the print piece, Tim O'Reilly in a Nutshell. Here are a few of the books that have played a large role in my life. Get Your Hands Dirty!
Publish Date: Jan. 21, 2005January 2005. Hackers of all stripes refuse to just take what they’re given. They’re driven to remake it, and getting there is more than half the fun. In the latest O'Reilly catalog, Tim writes about the host of new books and products within that celebrate the hacker impulse. We've got the information you need to hack, remix, and master technology at home and at work. So go on, get your hands dirty! Pick the Hat to Fit the Head
Publish Date: Oct. 27, 2004October 2004. Larry Wall once said, "Information wants to be valuable." The form in which information is presented contributes to that value. At O'Reilly Media, we offer a variety of ways for you to get your technical information. Tim O'Reilly talks about some of them in his quarterly letter for the O'Reilly Catalog. Technology and Tools of Change
Publish Date: Aug. 13, 2004Building the next generation of technology won't be easy, and will require developers, entrepreneurs, and the customers they serve to learn new skills. O'Reilly has a collection of new and favorite tools for building the future, including a new "Technology & Society" book series, a new "Web 2.0--Web as Platform" conference, and a new print-on-demand, custom books service called SafariU. Open Source Paradigm Shift
Publish Date: Jun. 21, 2004This article is based on a talk that I first gave at Warburg-Pincus' annual technology conference in May of 2003. Since then, I have delivered versions of the talk more than twenty times, at locations ranging from the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the UK Unix User's Group, Microsoft Research in the UK, IBM Hursley, British Telecom, Red Hat's internal "all-hands" meeting, and BEA's eWorld conference. I finally wrote it down as an article for an upcoming book on open source,"Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software," edited by J. Feller, B. Fitzgerald, S. Hissam, and K. R. Lakhani and to be published by MIT Press in 2005. The Architecture of Participation
Publish Date: Jun. 21, 2004 State of the Computer Book Market
Publish Date: Apr. 16, 2004We've launched a new market research group at O'Reilly. Its mission is to develop quantifiable metrics for the state of technology adoption. Aided by Nielsen BookScan sales data, which shows us trends in what people are buying, we're able to evaluate trends in technology adoption that should help us do a better job of forecasting technology growth patterns. Tim O'Reilly shares some of the analysis. Amazon and Open Source
Publish Date: Feb. 14, 2004Amazon realized early on that amazon.com was more than just a book site, more in fact than just an e-commerce site. It was beginning to become an e-commerce platform. Open source has been a key part of the Amazon story, and although Amazon has closed code, it has created its own "architecture of participation" that may be even richer than that of many open source software development communities. The Future of Technology and Proprietary Software
Publish Date: Dec. 23, 2003In celebration of its 25th anniversary, InfoWorld did a feature on where technology has been and where it's headed: 25 Years of Technology. Tim O'Reilly answered some questions for that piece about the future of technology and proprietary software. Many of his comments were included in the article, but here they are in their entirety, as well. Did Amazon Listen?
Publish Date: Dec. 17, 2003After all that controversy over Amazon's 1-Click patent, what's this about them receiving a patent for new features on their ordering forms? Tim explains that Jeff Bezos never said he'd stop filing for patents, but that he'd think twice before enforcing them in a potentially offensive way. O'Reilly's E-Book Strategy
Publish Date: Nov. 22, 2003O'Reilly's e-book strategy is to build a flexible data repository supporting XML web services that will allow us to deliver content into a variety of channels. The O'Reilly Network, which offers online content in bite-size chunks, is the "smaller" part of the strategy; Safari, a database of thousands of books that you can search across, is the "bigger" part.

Blog

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Ignite, Syndicated Events, and Social Media Marketing

February 09 2010

As we approach Global Ignite Week, a collection of Ignite events around the world during the first week of March, I can't help but think about the future of conferences, one of O'Reilly's major businesses. Here are some of the things we're learning from Ignite. People love the rapid-fire format.… read more

Google Buzz re-invents Gmail

February 09 2010

Social networks get all the attention, but email remains an important information console for many. That's why the introduction of Google Buzz is so noteworthy. It adds the power of asymmetric following to Gmail's interface. read more

A Few Thoughts on the Nexus One

January 05 2010

There will be many posts focusing on the look, feel, and features of the Nexus One, so I'm going to focus on what Android's latest incarnation says about the competitive landscape - what I've elsewhere called the war for the web. Android vs. iPhone is one important front in that… read more

Commerce and the Wealth of Nations

December 31 2009

I was struck the other day by an article in the New York Times that describes the different approaches of the US and China to Afghanistan, in which the US shoulders the burden of war, while China reaps the benefits of commerce. Quoting from the article, I tweeted: "American troops… read more

Why Using ShopSavvy Might Not Be So Savvy

December 18 2009

Reading this morning's New York Times story, Mobile Phones Become Essential Tools for Holiday Shopping, I was reminded again of the fundamental shortsightedness of so many of our economic decisions, that flaw in human nature that makes us seize on temporary advantage without thinking of the long-term consequences. The article… read more

The War For the Web

November 16 2009

On Friday, my latest tweet was automatically posted to my Facebook news feed, as always. But this time, Tom Scoville noticed a difference: the link in the posting was no longer active. It turns out that a lot of other people had noticed this too. Mashable wrote about the problem… read more

Safari Books Online 6.0: A Cloud Library as an alternate model for ebooks

October 27 2009

There has been a lot of attention paid to ebooks lately, and for good reason. Electronic books are portable, searchable, and more affordable than print books. The web has accustomed readers to having the latest information at their fingertips; we all ask why books should be any less available "on… read more

Thoughts on the Whitehouse.gov switch to Drupal

October 25 2009

Yesterday, the new media team at the White House announced via the Associated Press that whitehouse.gov is now running on Drupal, the open source content management system. That Drupal implementation is in turn running on a Red Hat Linux system with Apache, MySQL and the rest of the LAMP stack.… read more

Web 2.0 Summit Starts Today

October 20 2009

Last year at Web 2.0 Summit, one prominent tech executive responded to our focus on "Web meets World" -- the way web technology is being used to attack the world's problems -- by saying "I don't come to this conference to learn how to do good. I come to learn… read more

My Conversation with Austan Goolsbee at Web 2.0 Summit

October 15 2009

He introduces himself as "another tall, skinny guy with big ears and a funny name." Economics adviser to Barack Obama during the campaign, and now a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Austan Goolsbee is a key figure in… read more

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

October 15 2009

Today is Blog Action Day 2009. This is an annual event, held every October 15, with a goal of encouraging an outpouring of simultaneous comment on an important issue calling for global action. This year, the designated subject is climate change. Back in January, I wrote a blog post summarizing… read more

"He not busy being born is busy dying"

October 14 2009

I found myself quoting that great Bob Dylan line the other day on a mailing list for those dealing with the changes sweeping through the publishing industry. Michael Coffey from Publisher's Weekly wrote an eloquent and moving lament that expresses the fear of many that the book might be losing… read more

Microsoft Press Enters Strategic Alliance with O'Reilly

September 24 2009

Today, Microsoft and O'Reilly Media announced an agreement to support and expand Microsoft Press. Under the terms of the strategic alliance, O'Reilly will be the exclusive distributor of Microsoft Press titles and co-publisher of all Microsoft Press titles, on Nov. 30, 2009. We'll be working with Microsoft to develop new… read more

What Does Government 2.0 Mean To You?

August 26 2009

As many of you know, I've built a new conference, Gov 2.0 Summit, around the idea of the government as platform: how can government design programs to be generative, to use Zittrain's phrase? How do we get beyond the idea that participation means "public input" (shaking the vending machine to… read more

Seeing Our Culture With Fresh Eyes

July 23 2009

The other day, I read a novel called Prester John, by John Buchan, published in 1910. This story about a Zulu uprising in South Africa as experienced by a young Scottish immigrant is an entertaining read in the spirit of Rudyard Kipling or H. Rider Haggard: adventure in the furthest… read more

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Multimedia

Webcast: Web Squared
June 25, 2009
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Cost: Free As we approach the six-year mark from the original Web 2.0 thesis, the trends are becoming clearer than ever. Once applications live in the cloud, the key to success will be harnessing network effects...

Webcast: Twitter Power Tips
May 21, 2009
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Preview Video: Free Full Video: Available on Safari Books Online At first blush, Twitter appears to be an easy and friendly medium. But don't be deceived: it's also powerful and complex, supporting a rich third...

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