web 2.0

what do you think web 2.0 is?

There is so much hype around it, I wonder if there is anything new about web 2.0. As a test consultant, web accessibility concepts are nothing new, but I am more interested to hear what people’s perception of this movement is, outside of the wikipedia definition.

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Stan Relihan (Regional Manager NSW, Rosch Group)

Web 2.0 is far more than stylesheets & cool rounded, shaded logos - it’s essentially the Democratisation of the internet, through websites that exist amost completeley through user-created / submitted content. The benefits for the operators is that once these sites have been created, there is virtualy no maintenance or cost involved in scalability - after all, it costs virtually the same to deliver a web site to 100 Million users as it does to 10 million, 1 million or a few hundred thousand.

Pioneers of this concept are sites like Craigslist, Friendster & eBay. Every time you visit, every minute of every day, the content is new & different from the last time - with virtually no cost or effort to the operator. For second-generation, true ‘Web 2.0′ sites think MySpace, YouTube, Digg.com - and of course, LinkedIn itself!

In addition to being less expensive to operate than sites like Amazon.com, New York Times etc, the REAL multiplier benefit comes from the fact that user-created content creates far more passion & involvement - and it’s no surprise that these Web 2.0 sites are amongst the most popular on the entire internet.

How cool is that?

The only question that remains is:

“How do I monetize all this traffic into a growing, sustainable & profutable business model?”

But that’s another story …

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Stuart Donnelly (Managing Director, PMP)

Is Web 2.0 not all very ‘last year’? I get the impression people are keen to move to the next level without bursting another bubble…

I’d agree that 2.0 was all about getting real people involved in generating real content but I think this years drive will be around applying the lessons learned from last year, youtube etc. towards richer and richer media - the next killer app has got to be the mainstream replacement of broadcast TV with IP based technologies.

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Floyd Langdon (Internet Entrepreneur)

You could be right, Stuart - but maybe IPTV is Web 3.0?

Lol!

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Erlend Debast (Web designer - Megaluna Triumviraat)

Web 2.0 is about content, interaction and combining those two.
Web 2.0 is also a marketing/sales term.

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Daniel Thornton - (Web Producer - Emap)
Web 2.0 is a spurious term for grouping a number of websites which arrived at the same time. Many of those sites had evolved the idea of social networking in some way that was applicable to their business, along with a newer school of design which led to more white space, for example.
Most discussion of Web 2.0 has faded now as the web continues to evolve.

As mentioned above, IPTV etc and online 3D networking tools (think Second Life-style) are seen as the next stage, and some have termed in web 3.0. Although there have been services such as PPLive running for absolutely ages, and showing sports coverage from around the world.

My perception of web 2.0 has been some publicity for some very good sites, some publicity for some average sites, and some publicity for some very bad sites. And most of them have a suitably ‘funky’ sounding name, which ends with an R.

It’s also had the effect that even people who have no interest in internet technology are now rambling about the value of User Generated Content and Social Networking, without thinking about whether it is the right implementation for their audience etc.

Links:
http://thewayoftheweb.blogspot.com/
Messages from Daniel Thornton (1):

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Dave Garrett (CEO at gantthead.com)

The very best answer to this question can be found here (see below) on the O’Reilly site. Tim O’Reilly first coined the term and heads up efforts to refine what it means.

Links:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20….

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Nick Bradshaw (Founder & Managing Director sales-vision.net)

Good question….I am sure it will provoke a range of views.

My take on it is that Web 2.0 is describes a phase of evolution - part a real concept and part a marketing “name” aiming to define (to some extent) the last 5 years of the evolution and how applications / services can truly be delivered via the web.

I think it also points towards the future, in so much as the web can be a platform for delivery - just as Citrix did for Client Server based apps - so the web will do for a range of applications that I am sure we will see emerge in the next 5-10 years, especially when reaching out to the SME community who want easy to access (deployment) solutions but cannot swallow high cost of ownership.

Right now things like VOIP, video, film, TV, CRM etc…are what we see now and it will be interesting to see what emerges. Software as a Service (SaaS) applications will most certainly expand into areas such application development and non “run of the mill” office / related collaboration segments.

If this naming convention continues, I pose the question back as to what Web 3.0 and beyond might be. Its certainly a multi $Bn question!! If you have some ideas I am sure there are a few VCs out there that might be ready to listen but convincing them to part with their cash might be a little harder

Links:
http://www.sales-vision.net/

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Andrew Davies (Owner True Clarity)

The stuff that gets me excited about Web 2.0 focuses around the idea of user generated content. In this area there has been a huge shift in the use of the internet compared with “Web 1.0″. I’m totally addicted to sites like flickr and traineo.

At True Clarity we have put together a short white paper that tries to pull out some business benefits of companies using some of this Web 2.0 stuff.

Please have a read and let me know what you think,

Links:
http://www.trueclarity.co.uk/Web-2-0-Five-ways-buinesseses-can-benefit.aspx
Messages from Andrew Davies (1):

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Chris Warrender (eBusiness Consultant)

Personally, I hate this term! Web 2.0 - it’s overused, incorrectly used and it’s so easy to misunderstand when this term is used as a singular description.

One of the reasons I despise it, also, is because it seems to allude to the ‘web 1.0′ being ‘not so good’ and ‘old’ - well alot of the web 1.0 is web 2.0. Look at eBay, Amazon (book reviews and resales) and Friends Reunited? (Classmates in NA)….

For me - the web is constantly evolving and developing it doesn’t develop in phases - it’s constant - the only difference is what is being hyped or not by a) the press (specialised, trade and then mainstream) and b) the financiers (VC’s, banks, financial ‘analysts’ etc.)….

Of course it also helps that money is now becoming more and more available again for web start-ups - when post 2000 it was pretty much a drybed.

Maybe it should be ‘Bubble 2.0′ ?? LOL

Seriously though - collaborative, philanthropic and distributed sites have been around for years - blogs have been around for years - just not called blogs and maybe they didn’t abide by blog rules of engagement (track back, RSS, posting order, reader comments etc…) but, they were there.

There were a lot of services and sites that, if relaunched today, would be accepted as web 2.0 (or web two point OH! as like to call it when I’m being particularly abrasive) the problem was, in many cases they were run by idiots and/or they were before their time and didn’t or were not able to foster the critical mass of membership/visitors/contributors before they lost their money and went down the server plug hole.

Alot of the time it’s ‘right place/right idea/right funding partner/right founders/right management/right luck’ those are the main ingredients - and sadly ‘web 1.0′ had so many ideas that the above were oft missing.

One of the things I find encouraging in these latest contributor based sites - digg, wikipedia, LinkedIn Answers etc…. is the explosion of intellectual philanthropy - I like that, I like that a lot.

So, my answer - call it web 2.0 if you want (not to me, though! ;-)..) but when do we start calling it web 3.0, and when we do - what happens if I have a brilliant idea for a web 2.0 service that’ll make money - unless it’s web 3.0 will anyone fund me?

Food for though….

I may start my web 5.0 idea now - maybe I’ll be ready for that ‘wave’.