Montreal Tech Watch

I just closed the poll about the meaning of web2.0, there were 48 votes which seemed enough:

• hype, mostly 8% (4 votes)
• I don’t even know what ”web2.0” means 0% (0 votes)
• it’s short for we create all the content, and they keep all the (ad) money 4% (2 votes)
• it’s the new tools and technologies like AJAX, APIs, RSS, microformats, Rich Internet Applications 20% (10 votes)
• it’s blogs, social networking, wikis, syndication, and crowdsourcing 25% (13 votes)
• it’s the transition from desktop-based software to online/browser applications 22% (11 votes)
• it’s the future of the Internet and the computer 12% (6 votes)
• a buzzword that lacks any revenue or business model 4% (2 votes)

Most readers of MontrealTechWatch seem to have a clear idea about what web2.0 means, and they are also quite optimistic about it.

There were also 3 other answers:

• A semantic web might be worth a 2.0 version. AJAX and interactivity is more like…
• it’s convergence between industries, products ans services and converging player
• All of the above

I don’t quite understand the part about “convergence”. A semantic web is another problem that was pursued by many since the Internet’s birth, but is not yet solved. The third option is somehow true, but it’s an answer that is too easy.

For everyone who participated, thanks a lot!

To be fair, I will also give my answer. Web2.0 is for me the appropriation of the Internet users as a tool of communication, creation, information and work. Before web2.0, there was a common understanding that users “surf” the web, and consume whatever companies threw at them. Means of communication was limited to email and chat, and if you had websites where you could publish something, there were built as closed gardens where one had to register to experience, or worse pay a subscription fee. Web companies did that to artificially bump their number of users and thought that keeping a proprietary platform would prevent users to go elsewhere. Those were the days where external links were opened in new windows, if not forbidden, and where they messed with your browser so that you couldn’t leave the website. New startups came, and shattered that conception of the web, allowing users to reuse the data, allowing other companies to get and republish the data, make the data avalaible through other channels, and most importantly, focus their business model entirely on content created by each user, instead of serving them content created by big companies. With this came blogs, social networks, pictures, videos, news, music, all user-focused.

It’s true also that web2.0 was quickly grabbed by the marketing types and the next day, you had bloggers and new startups trying to give their own version of web2.0, which made the word somehow meaningless. In that regard, web2.0 is hyped, true; but it may be necessary. web2.0 is in its teenage days, and still trying to define itself. I used myself to see it as pure hype, but when you think about it, this really is the social usage of the web that is most suited to the technical nature of the Internet: a distributed tool of communication that allows personalization.

Finally, about tools and technologies, I don’t think AJAX has something to do with web2.0, gradients and stickers don’t either. They were the icing on the cake that pinpointed the changes to the user. However, RSS and APIs did a lot to the new movement and I believe will still play a bigger role.

I also like this illustration by eboy, which shows a chaotic web2.0 world:

You can click on the illustration to see other materials and posters.