Web 2.0

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is Web 2.0?. . .  4

Is it REAL or it is all just HYPE?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7

Why is this happening now?. . . 10

Isn’t this just BUBBLE 2.0?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

How do you apply Web 2.0 thinking to YOUR business?. . 14

Warning! Construction Ahead!. . . 19

What do you do on MONDAY morning?. . . . . . . . . . 21

Acknowledgements. . . 22

End Notes. . . . . 23

What is Web 2.0? Why do I care? What do I do about it?

Introduction

As you read this, industries are being disrupted. Yours May Be Next.

You need to understand what is happening so that you can lead your

organization successfully in these times of turbulence.

The classified advertising industry is collapsing; the public relations industry is undergoing a

radical make-over; the newspaper and media landscape is being turned upside down by the

social media movement; the hundred year old telephone business is facing its largest threat

ever…and losing; the global auctions industry has already been up-ended.

This is just for starters.

The purpose of this manifesto is to introduce you to Web 2.0 principles and concepts so that

you may help your organization formulate a Web 2.0 strategy to address this next “sea change”.

What is Web 2.0?

Have you heard of blogs? How about wikis? RSS? VoIP? Podcast?

This alphabet soup is just the tip of the iceberg. They are all part of

something called “Web 2.0.”

Web 2.0 has many definitions and a lot of them are either incomplete or too technical.

Because we wanted to take a high-level view, the one we will use is:

“Web 2.0 is a group of economically, socially, and technologically driven changes in

attitudes, tools, and applications that are allowing the Web to become the next

platform for communication, collaboration, community, and cumulative learning.”

(Troy Angrignon)

This simple definition belies the fact that the definition of Web 2.0 is still very much in flux.

Even the name is hotly debated (variations on the theme include �Read/Write Web’ or �Web

32.0’ and many others.) But we agree with Tim O’Reilly who wrote: “There might be a better

name…but the fact that �Web 2.0’ has caught on says that it’s as good a term as any…I guess

it’s the old debate between language purists, and language pragmatists. The right words are

the ones people actually use, and this word is catching on.”d So we will use the term “Web

2.0” from here on in.e

In short, Web 2.0 is about making computing SOCIAL.

The following themes appear commonly in the various definitions of Web 2.0:

‡ Collaboration: the first theme is about people working together, collaborating, to

create software, content, communities, art, music, literature, and a multitude of other

things. Web 2.0 tools and applications support this type of interaction at their core.

‡ Conversation: There is a conversation happening and it’s not just happening in your

corporate website forum. It is happening on blogs. It is a public conversation about

politics, business, social issues, and anything else you can imagine, including your

company. Tools are developing rapidly in this area and we have a long way to go, but

these are exciting times. There is a conversation going on right now that you could

contribute to or learn from. What are you waiting for? Join in!

‡ Community: We have had online communities now for at least fifteen years or more.

But the tools for building online communities are now becoming more widespread

and communities are forming around every imaginable (and unimaginable) subject,

product, and industry. If you are looking for your “tribe”, they are probably out there

somewhere.

‡ Connection: we are building messaging systems that now connect people to people,

people to machines, and machines to machines. The names of these systems are not

important but their function is.

‡ Content Creation: It turns out that if you give people the tools to create “stuff”, they

do just that. In fact, they create so much stuff that it quite frankly upsets our

assumptions about who in our society are the creators and who are the consumers.

‡ Cumulative Learning: think of cumulative learning as peer reviewed journals for every

person on the planet with internet