When Richard MacManus declared Web 2.0 dead last year, I said he was crazy. Web 2.0 isn’t about a definition, its about what’s happening on the web today.
Well, Richard now proclaims that Web 2.0 is back, or that it never went away, or generally that he’s claiming it as his own again. His primary reason for re-accepting it seems to be that he heard IBM and Gartner employees using the term recently.
While I enjoy watching Richard struggle with his inner self, and trying to find security in his beliefs, I think I’ll carry on as I have – mostly ignoring the debate and focusing on the companies that are defining the new web.
I don’t mean this to be harsh, I just find the endless debates hard to take seriously. When people ask me what web 2.0 means to me, I say it’s about conversations, a generical and hard to dispute answer that quickly ends the discussion. When they ask me about the future, I say “mobile” and “web as the OS”. Again, the discussion ends quickly. Then we can talk about what I love – the latest consumer web app that everyone’s trying out and writing about.
You’ve got the right attitude Mike – always have. I’m just like a dog with a bone. I thought I buried it, but I had to go and dig it up again
Thanks, Mike – someone in your finger-on-the-pulse position would likely be tempted to pontificate excessively, and I’m glad you see past that!
Couldn’t agree more.
And besides: everbody who starts these dumb debates about the validness of a term is an outsider. Everybody on the inside knows what it means and what value it has in a conversation, so who cares.
when you start talking about web 2.0 as a struggle of inner self and beliefs well then you know something has died.. like common sense
Web 2.0 is a synonym for “Cool, like Flickr and del.icio.us”. What actually makes those sites cool is in teh eye of the beholder. APIs? AJAX? Tagging? The fact that they are startups that got bought by a big company? Dunno, and quite frankly it doesn’t matter much either.
Alterion, u r reading far too much into this.
Dare, I don’t think you’ll find any disagreement from Mike or I on that. As I said in my post, web 2.0 means everything and nothing at the same time
I know I was, I just thought it was funny
Well, we have a problem. Mr O’Reilly is claiming dibs on Web 2.0. http://www.tomrafteryit.net/oreilly-trademarks-web-20-and-sets-lawyers-on-itcork/