Solid Conference San Francisco 2014: Video Compilation Review
My review of O’Reilly's Solid Conference San Francisco 2014: Complete Video Compilation. #OReillySolid @OreillySolid
If you're an entrepreneur and interested in new opportunities created by the convergence of hardware and software, O'Reilly's video compilation of the 2014 Solid Conference offers a great introduction to the current landscape of the Internet of Things (or Internet of Everything depending on your euphemism of choice).
The videos are divided into six categories providing a well-rounded set of viewpoints:
"Keynotes" which include thought provoking commentaries from leaders in the space.
"Companies" which include lessons learned from entrepreneurs who have launched successful IOT businesses. (These are a set of must see videos if you're looking to avoid costly startup mistakes. )
"Machines" which provide useful advice from moving from prototypes to scalable manufacturing.
"Society" (perhaps the oddly named category) which includes videos related to practical use cases for intelligent hardware.
"Foundations" which is the "deep thought" presentation track which includes topics that are intended to expand the view of what’s possible with IoT technologies.
The last category, "Tools" is the most technical and provides specific implementation details.
A particularly solid discourse (excuse the pun) was the short Keynote clip from Jim Stogdill explaining the overall concept of Solid. Balanced with high-level videos like this one are clips that are intended to provide specific and actionable implementation advice like Rob Coneybeer's tutorial on hardware branding.
Overall the series includes over 100 videos encompassing 36 hours of content. If you are in the process of launching a hardware startup, purchasing this library is a no brainer, given the costly mistakes that can be avoided just by watching the Companies track.
If you're an industry outsider who is simply interested in gaining a thorough understanding about the possibilities promised by a converged hardware and software world, the $499 price might be considered somewhat steep, but in my opinion is still a buy, especially if you consider the depth of education being offered on a single topic.
