"There's been a lot of focus on silly consumer applications, like Facebook throwing sheep," says O'Reilly in a video interview from the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City last week.

"Meanwhile we have economic meltdown, global warming, oil price shocks, terrible education in this country, dysfunctional politics," says O'Reilly. "What are we doing as an industry to apply our intelligence to solve these problems? I'd love to see a lot more focus in this community on moving away from more things for people to consume and really tackling the hard problems of the world."

O'Reilly points out that the biggest companies in the computer industry began with lofty goals. Microsoft Corp. aimed to put a computer on every desktop, and Google Inc. sought to organize all the information in the world.

"Finding a problem that's really hard and really needs solving is the secret to success," says O'Reilly.

Check back later for more video interviews from Web 2.0 Expo. -- Mary Kathleen Flynn