Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
So how plugged in is the SEC chair? (technologically speaking)
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro says her agency has its work cut out to compete with the massive amounts of money that private firms, policed by the SEC, pour into the latest technology.
“Can we keep up with Wall Street? I think we have a fighting chance. We’ll never have, under any circumstances, the kind of budgets that would allow us to spend a billion dollars a year on technology as some firms do, I mean that’s just not going to happen, and I totally understand that,” she said at the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit. 
“If we can build a forensics lab for our enforcement people to be able to download data off of iPhones and iPads and other instruments, then we will be a lot better able to pursue insider trading potentially and other securities law violations,” she said.
So how technologically plugged in is the SEC chair personally?
“I have an iPad,” Schapiro said.
“No I don’t do Twitter, I don’t have a Facebook page. You know, in my position it would be complicated,” she said with a laugh. “So maybe I’m kind of middling in terms of technology.”
McCain to Gaga: I’ll save my talking for the Senate
Don’t expect Senator John McCain to respond to critical Twitter comments from pop star Lady Gaga as the U.S. 
Senate girds for a showdown over gays in the military.
“I only Twitter with Snooki, as you know,” McCain said Monday at the Reuters Washington Summit.
from MediaFile:
Twitter’s Costolo: not quite footloose and fancy free
You'd think fast-racing Twitter would keep one eye firmly fixed on the rearview and side mirrors.
With the Internet landscape littered with also-rans -- from pets.com to AskJeeves.com to a Facebook-steamrolled MySpace -- you'd imagine the one thing overnight Internet microblogging phenomenon Twitter would fear the most would be to get displaced by an up-and-comer with the same alarming speed.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg talks MySpace, Twitter
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke to the Reuters Global Technology Summit on Tuesday and while he wouldn’t touch TechCrunch’s report about financing and valuation, he did opine about a few of Facebook’s Web peers:
On the difference between Facebook and MySpace:
I think MySpace defines themselves as more of a media company and a media portal. A way to see the different content that is going on, or a way for a News Corp parent company to spread content through the network. Facebook has always been more focused on helping people build out their identity, helping people maintain their relationships and communicate really efficiently. We have talked about ourselves as a technology company a lot as opposed to a media company.
from MediaFile:
It’s not easy being Biz
In the adrenalin-fueled world of Internet start-ups, where "Biz" is usually followed by "Dev," where did Twitter co-founder Biz Stone get his nickname?
After talking to the Reuters Technology Summit of growth rates and future revenue possibilities, the Twitter co-founder chatted with the Reuters San Francisco bureau about his unusual moniker and why it can pose traveling hiccups.
from MediaFile:
Counting Twitter users with Wolfram Alpha
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told the Reuters Global Technology Summit on Monday that unless Twitter's growth rate slowed, by the end of the year its user base would exceed the population of Planet Earth.
Break out those calculators, nerds!
Let's put Biz's admittedly tongue-in-cheek statement to the test, using some back-of-the envelope math and the much-hyped, newly launched online knowledge compendium Wolfram Alpha.
