Here's a list of the things people at Gnomdex want to change:
(1) There's too much social software. We have no perspective - or our perspective is just way off base from the rest of the real world.
(2) We (techies) don't look outside our echo chamber. We completely ignore the outside world. We don't talk about real people. (Eric Rice)
(3) We need to think beyond the screen. The interface of the future may not be just the computer screen. There will be other ambient interfaces; there will be voice interfaces.
(4) Three things the people in this room need to be thining about: (a) the geographic dimention - it needs to affect not just the people in SF, or the grandman in the midwest, but it needs to reach asia, and globally; (b) time dimension - in your mind, something may be history (like MS Office) but there's still something to be gained in the short term (Example is that the fuel emission car is "dead" but we won't be flying home in our solar plane this weekend.) The short term of a "dead" product can be lucrative; (c) scale dimention -- need to allow people to build niches on top of the ideas.
(5) Slowing growth - fear of NSA and indexing of information.
(6) We should have more sessions at conferences that involve teens. Comparing the WSJ D conference teen panel with the panel at Web 2.0.
(7) We need to step up and understand the deeper structures we're in so that the legal regime matches the norm we live in. (Kalea/Identity Woman/Gnomdex MVP).
(8) We should be designing machines for the younger people, not the older people. Basically, the commenter says that people will die anyway so development should be in view of the younger people. (This comment received some raised eyebrows, and a passionate counter argument from Shannon Clark. His point is that the computer technology is great for the elderly. It's a great place for adaptable seniors to connect, thrive, and advance well into their 100s.)
(9) Canter wants Yahoo! to give a 2-year roadmap so that all these others can develop along with Yahoo!
(10) Brian Dersey gives a response to the mortgage broker's question. He asks, what does she want? What gaps in her computing day can they fill?
Now, that was an interesting bitch session, if I've ever heard one.