Digiwonder?

So What Really Is Web 2.0? August 1, 2006

In a March Slate article, Paul Boutin boils it down to this:

The only way that 2.0 fits the current Web is if you use the original meaning. It’s a technology upgrade, one that finally does what they’d said version 1.0 would do.

He’s right. Web 2.0 is finally the arrival at the “readable, writable” web where the lines between content consumers and producers blend.

In his article, Web 2.0: The new Internet “boom” doesn’t live up to its name, Boutin points out the term is becoming an overused buzz word.

But the definition runs aground when Web 2.0 technologies power Gap.com, an impressive but collaboration-free shopping experience.

Web 2.0. It sounds so cool. Some might even say, so 2.0! He’s right to caution that it can be an empty or even confusing term when people use it to sound sophisticated or ahead of the curve. What makes more sense:

I like Wikipedia because it’s 2.0.

I like Wikipedia because it’s an online, ever-evolving encyclopedia by the people.
But at the same time, I think techies need to chill out. Some people are going to misuse the term, no doubt. (I wonder if hip-hoppers lament the spread of “bling” into mainstream society?) But at the root, the term is spreading because the Internet is coming round to being what it was intended to be. That’s exciting! If 2.0 makes it into the dictionary, that would be even more exciting. No doubt what’s happening on the Net right now is a hallmark of our era that historians will discuss. Let the 2.0 term get out there and get out there wide. Let people’s imaginations be captured by it. Let folks get jazzed.

I trust people will see through the phony imposters.