Web 2.0: Is it a question or has it been answered?

UPDATE 9/30/05: In anticipation of the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference, Tim O’Reilly presents his position (i.e., answer) to the Web 2.0 question.

Om Malik was at dinner last night where the “What *is* Web 2.0 anyway?” question came up and he wrote about it asking for comments. I just left the following as a comment and realized it needed to be a post:

With some of the debate about what Web 2.0 is or isn’t, I also was thinking about the Web 2.0 conference (which I’m attending) next week. After reading this post, I went off to my own blog and looked at all my posts that I tagged with Web 2.0″.

Pretty eclectic bunch of posts. Is Web 2.0 a pipe? Yep. A set of enabling technologies? Yep. Applications? Check. How about interoperability and software as a service (i.e., web services). Oh yeah.

The analogies to a PC or even distributed enterprise I.T. (processing; messaging bus; I/O; applications; communications) is clear. That can only lead to one conclusion: this next phase of the internet is a platform upon which applications are built as well as services delivered (and the line between applications and services ” whether on the desktop or within the enterprise” is blurring).

The differentiator of Web 2.0 (vs. 1.0) is that humans en masse are infusing our collective consciousness in to the usage of this platform and its applications/services. In addition, critical mass of use of the always-on-internet has been achieved and the building blocks of a platform are in place.

Posted in  

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Steve Borsch

Strategist. Learner. Idea Guy. Salesman. Connector of Dots. Friend. Husband & Dad. CEO. Janitor. More here.

Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Posts by Category

Archives (2004 – Present)

Connecting the Dots Podcast

Podcasting hit the mainstream in July of 2005 when Apple added podcast show support within iTunes. I'd seen this coming so started podcasting in May of 2005 and kept going until August of 2007. Unfortunately was never 'discovered' by national broadcasters, but made a delightfully large number of connections with people all over the world because of these shows. Click here to view the archive of my podcast posts.