Mar 7, 2006 As you may have noticed, discussions about Web 2.0 have been going on here and at The
Dojo for the last couple of weeks. It seems to me that developers take one stand
and designers/marketeers another. Today I read the latest issue of Dr.
Dobb’s Journal and Michael Swaine's column
“Swaine's flames”. This man is very funny and very intelligent and here is a quote
from his column.
“Uhh, does Tim Berners-Lee get
a say in when the Web gets revved? Or is it the rule that anybody named Tim gets to
start his own Web? Internet2, IPv6, those terms actually refer to something. But Web
2.0: What’s that exactly? Nobody seems to know. Last September Tim
O’Reilly, who, along with his coconspirators at O’Reilly
& Associates, coined the term, tried to explain what Web 2.0 was and/or wasn't.
That essay convincingly demonstrated that Tim doesn’t know either. If Tim (either
of them) can’t define it, I certainly shouldn’t try, but I will anyway: Web 2.0 is
a commemorative coin minted in celebration of the end of the dot-com crash. Like all
commemorative coins, it has no actual value.”
This illustrates the very point
being made on this blog for the last weeks. Web 2.0 is hyped and, as Mr. Swaine
points out, has no actual value. It has no value because it is a set of ideas that
aren't new or special in any way. It takes credit for the evolution the internet/browsers/broadband
has undergone the last years. Developers recognized that early on, but it is relatively
new to almost everybody else.
* $4.95/month BlogEngine.net Hosting – Click Here!