This post is the fourth in a series in which we will be introducing keynote speakers who will be contributing to the conversation at the upcoming FASTForward 2008 conference at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Fl, February 18-20, 2008. Check here for more detail and registration info.

“A topic is not a domain with edges. It is how passion focuses itself.” - David Weinberger

For those who attended FASTforward 2007, David will be familiar from an exceptional series of video interviews he conducted with keynoters like Chris Anderson, Tim O’Reilly, and Bill Inmon, practitioners like David Watson of Disney/ABC and Dorothea Herrey of Dow Jones, industry analysts like Forrester’s Matt Brown and IDC’s Sue Feldman, and, of course blogging gurus like Euan Semple and Jim McGee.

But of course Weinberger has long been a highly respected industry commentator in his own right. He is a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, writes a popular blog, and is often heard on such forums as National Public Radio in the US and seen presenting keynotes at Internet-related conferences.

Many are not aware that he was once a Vice President of an Internet search engine firm, and that background helps shed light on some of the core insights to be found in his latest book, Everything is Miscellaneous.

In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David’s third book (following Cluetrain Manifesto, 2002, and Small Things Loosely Joined, 2003), he once again takes up the challenge of interpreting the changes that the Internet is bringing to our personal lives, to our social lives, and to the core assumptions that have anchored many businesses. Six years on from the publication of Cluetrain Manifesto, this is the clearest account yet of the fundamentals behind the “webiness” of the web, and how what’s different about information on the Internet is turning many operating assumptions about knowledge and about business on their heads.

At FASTforward 2008, David will be sharing his views on the 2.0 transformation and some specific ways in which 2.0 user behaviors spawn new business opportunities in places you’d probably not expect. Don’t miss the chance to catch a deep and deeply funny mind at work.