Web 2.0 meme spreading The Web 2.0 Revolution Spawns Offshoots... There's this "web 2.0" idea floating around. A bunch of hype is being made. It's another of these marketing-meme waves where a bunch of attention is built around some idea that generally isn't meaning much. In the early 90's I remember hype around "object oriented operating systems" where one could never figure out what that really meant. At least with the later wave of "push technology" for distributing content, you could see a practical demonstration with that screensaver product that was so popular in 1997.
The article linked above talks about how there's a movement to 2.0izing a bunch of things. Like libraries or law. Sigh. Somehow he gets through that long blog posting without mentioning that "Business 2.0" magazine.
Speaking of that magazine... I think it predates the "web 2.0" meme, so why does he place the beginning of 2.0itis on the web2.0 wave? That magazine was part of the .COM hype machine, so maybe he wants to forget it as a bad memory?
I think the idea has been with us for awhile ... why keep things the way they are? Doesn't technology fundamentally change the way society should be arranged and operated? Hmm... maybe it does, but for the fact that we are still people and react in human ways.
So, what to make of this...? Well, one thing is clear is the blog posting points to trends where the Web, rather than technology in general, is causing change in the areas he points to. The example of "Law 2.0" is a Wiki sponsored by Cornell University whose topic and scope is Law. I suppose the "Democracy 2.0" example might be exemplified by Howard Dean's use of web sites and blogging, and in general the rise of bloggers as a political force in 2004.
(2006-01-08 11:22:15.0)
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Comments [1]


Nice critique. I do prefer unvarnished points of view like yours.
I would dispute entirely though that Web 2.0 is soley a marketing gimmick, though certainly some view it as such. And use it as such.
In my view, and many others, Web 2.0 is about creating great online software using a specific set of "best practice" design patterns and related business models.
To directly address the marketing overuse of the term, I do plan a very special article shortly on specifically why Web 2.0 is a classic, timeless way of designing and developing great softare.
Yes, it's very overlapping with many of the ways we have now and that's the point. Yet it's also different in a few crucial ways that some folks miss. I hope you take a look.
And thanks for taking the time to read the blog.
Best,
Dion
Posted by Dion Hinchcliffe on January 09, 2006 at 11:15 AM PST #