I wrote a post last week about what I do for a living. In it, I mentioned that I am responsible for developing a new “Web 2.0″ website for my employer, but I didn’t explain what that means. And I’m not going to explain it in this post either.
But what I am going to do is tell you that no one knows what it means. Some people consider that to be a flaw in the concept. Personally, I think it is one of its strengths. Because it means that whenever someone uses the term “Web 2.0,” the listener/reader has the responsibility to ask, “Excuse me, but what does Web 2.0 mean to you?”
And that is when the conversation really begins.
At some point next week, after I return to Vermont and am able to sit down and put my thoughts together in the comfort of my own home, I’ll tell you what Web 2.0 means to me. But until then, you can scan through 500 explanations of Web 2.0, as compiled in a survey by 37signals, the company that is behind some of the most successful “Web 2.0″ applications on the web.
As for what I think, I’ll give you a little preview of next week’s post. My summary is included in the 500. Guess which one.
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Another good thing about ‘Web 2.0′ not being clearly definable, is that you can’t be charged with breach of contract when you end up giving them a Geocities website with animated spinning-guitar GIFs, and an autoplay MIDI version of the X-Files theme song.
It means several different things … or that’s how I’ve seen it used. I like best the ideas that Tim O’Reilly discusses in his 2005 posting on “Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.” Ideas like the web as platform, harnessing collective intelligence/data as paramount (use of the tool/data adds structure and content which then builds on itself), end of the software release cycle (as seen by the end user … rolling releases/constant small changes). Here’s a link to his post. It’s the first hit in Google for web 2.0. … And no, I didn’t hit Google before writing this. I had read this months ago.
Good guess, but no.
What happened to your shout-box?
I’m working on Dawn’s laptop this week, running Safari, and what do you know? The shoutbox kills Safari. When it was happening to you, I didn’t care. But when it happens to me…well, that shit’s got to change, right?
Yeah, there was some guy on NPR talking about people only getting involved in their politics when it comes into their own lawn, or something.