The top thinkers and innovators from the technology world appeared on one stage to provide smart insights, ask provocative questions, and make funny quips. Enjoy.

Fritz Nelson, Vice President, Editorial Director InformationWeek Business Technology Network

October 20, 2011

4 Min Read

11.) Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Windows Phone 7 and Google:

"You don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone 7. You can't say that about Android."

12.) Michael Dell on the challenges of being an entrepreneur 27 years ago, specifically about not knowing that products Dell made would have to get FCC approval, saying "they didn't teach that in high school":

"I was probably reading BYTE magazine and goofing off in class."

13.) Sean Parker speaking about his alleged yelling match with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

"I generally tend to be the victim of the platforms that I help create."

14.) Twitter CEO Dick Costolo in response to questions about secret orders from the U.S. Department of Justice:

"You're not allowed to talk about [it]. It's like the first rule of fight club, but real."

15.) Senator Wyden:

"I believe very strongly: There are two Patriot Acts in America--the one you can pull up on your iPad and is a public law. There is another Patriot Act, which essentially is the secret interpretation that the executive branch uses to offer up their belief of what the law actually means and how they're carrying it out. When America sees what the secret interpretation is when it comes out ... I think people are going to be surprised and they are going to be angry."

16.) Sean Parker in response to John Battelle's statement about Facebook being the company that everyone is scared of, or is a little creepy, or has too much power:

"There's good creepy and there's bad creepy. Today's creepy is tomorrow's necessity."

17.) Mary Meeker:

"Facebook has more than 800 million users. More than 50% log in every day."

18.) Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff on Facebook:

"Everything I want in a consumer operating system is in Facebook."

19.) Chris Poole bemoaning Facebook's "one-size fits all" design, calling it:

"A fast food approach to identity."

20.) Senator Wyden:

"Some would like to say to the American people you can have one or the other: you can either be protected from dangerous terrorists, or you can have these so called privacy rights ... I don't buy that at all. I do not think that these are mutually exclusive. I think it's possible to fight terrorism ferociously and to make sure that people ... can have their privacy."

21.) eBay CEO John Donahoe about his company's competitive stature:

"We don't compete with the people who sell on our platform."

22.) Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Bing, search, and Google:

"Today I'd issue you a challenge. Take any search you want and try it on Bing, try it on Google. Seventy percent of you won't care, 15% of you will like us better, and 15%, you'll like the other guy better."

23.) Mary Meeker:

"Windows operating system fell to installation on less than 50% of all Internet-enabled devices in early 2010."

24.) Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the cloud:

"All in, baby." On how cloud is going in the enterprise, especially vs. Google: "We are winning winning winning winning."

25.) Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff talking about the cloud and "false clouds":

"The Web is a fabric of services getting stitched together to create these fabulous apps ... [it is] not just about a virtual machine in your data center. It's not about something you can get on a disk."

And let's add one more quote as an added bonus.

26.) Chris Poole on identity in a social networking world:

"It's not who you share with, but who you share as."

Fritz Nelson is the editorial director for InformationWeek and the executive producer of TechWebTV. Fritz writes about startups and established companies alike, but likes to exploit multiple forms of media into his writing.

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About the Author(s)

Fritz Nelson

Vice President, Editorial Director InformationWeek Business Technology Network

Fritz Nelson is a former senior VP and editorial director of the InformationWeek Business Technology Network.

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