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PubCon Vegas Association Partner
PubCon Vegas Association Partner
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| Opera Software to Sponsor PubCon - Jon S. von Tetzchner to Keynote |
Date: July 28, 2006, 11:30 pm
Category Tag: "PubCon Vegas 2006"
Posted by: Brett_Tabke
Imagine waking up and finding your two top competitors are the world's largest IT corporation (Microsoft), and the beloved favorite son of the web (Mozilla). Further imagine that both of those competitors give their products away (IE and Mozilla/FireFox). As scary a prospect as it is - that is the challenge that Opera Software has faced.
Opera Software is a rare story on the web today. I first heard about Opera browser in about 1998, back when a P3-32meg of ram with a 100meg hard drive was still a legitimate system to use. At the time, Netscape was world famous - not only for being a great browser, but also for being a system-dominating pig. Along came Opera: 1/10th size of Netscape, twice as fast, and would run on just about anything from a bare-bones 286 machine in under 2meg of Ram.
I was so impressed at the quality of Opera browser and the commitment that Opera Software ASA clearly had to the product that I just had to get involved. I was on the early beta test teams for Opera 4+. It was a great experience getting to know the guys in Norway and also learning about the process of building a product that had so many passionate users. I also started a deep Opera site over on SearchEngineWorld.com (now defunct).
Over the years, I have occasionally pinged Opera to get them to come out and talk with the folks at PubCon. We always felt that Jon or Geir (founders of Opera), or even CTO Håkon Wium Lie (author of the CSS standard) would be excellent speakers, but timing and circumstances never quite worked out.
So, I was a bit surprised when Opera called up this spring and wanted to sponsor PubCon. My immediate reaction was to say, "Only if Jon comes to give one of the keynotes." The fax came in for sponsorship a few days later. Opera didn't know if Jon could make it, but then rearranged some schedules to make it happen. NOTE: we also have to change some times around. We are currently working with speakers to rearrange Tuesday afternoon of the conference to make room for Jons talk. This will most likely be the last session of the afternoon on Tuesdays kick-off day.
I guess watching Opera grow up from a mom-n-pop operation to a public company has made me anxious and excited to finally meet some of the folks behind Opera. The company was founded in 1994 by Jon S. von Tetzchner and Geir Ivarsøy as they worked for Telnor (a huge telco) in Norway. It is now a publicly traded company in Norway and is hugely successful. Let's face it, when you can compete with the likes of Microsoft and be as successful as Opera Software has been - it is clear they've got game.
Not only has Opera excelled as a company and a product, it has also done so on the Web. Opera's main site (Opera.com), has a community section that I feel is one of the best on the web today. None of the big computer manufactures or big forums have found the balance between product support and community the way Opera has done it this last couple of years. I have watched the big software and computer sites struggle with support and community for years. The Opera Forums, blogs, and community pages are a world class example of how to blend the commercial with the social community around a product. Seriously, if you need to build a community support site - take a long hard look at what Opera is doing on their community pages - it is a standard bearer.
Opera has also created a site heavy in CSS without being overbearing about it. Many of today's large sites that embrace CSS do so at the expense of the visitor. Often, you will find links that are hard to read, text that overrides your settings, or is hard to see or read, blends on dividers, flashing moving drop down menus in the most counter intuitive places, and other visual mayhem that generally gets in your way of getting the information you came to get. Sure, it helps when you have one of the top CSS dudes on the web as your CTO (Håkon Wium Lie), but to bring off a site that is so integrated and seamless as Opera has done is rare. Ultimately, I think you have to conclude that Opera has gone from being a follower of the web standards, to an advocate of the standards, and now they are a powerful leader by example of the web standards.
Related Links: About Opera on Opera.com
Download Opera Browser
Opera Browser forum on WebmasterWorld.
Press Release
Press Contacts Page
-bt
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