Coming soon: Synopses of the final Syndidate sessions, PR and Doc Searls, as well as some thoughts on the conference itself. Plus a conversation I had with Oberkirch, Manuel, Richman and special guest Josh Hallet just before the PR session.
Today our feature is Web 2.0.
The net is abuzz with a huge flap over the use of the phrase Web 2.0, stemming from the Web 2.0 conference being put on by IT@Cork, and CMP/O’Reilly asserting trademark protection over the term, apparently when applied to conferences. I dunno, seems like a silly move by CMP and O’Reilly. I do understand the issue of trademark protection, but the whole thing seems a bit muddled and unnecessary. Ah well, leave it to the lawyers.
I’m just hoping that the end result is that we dump the phrase Web 2.0 altogether and find a nice "open-source" term, with a bit more meaning and a lot less hype. 🙂 Shel Israel suggests "social media." Yup, that works pretty good. At least it’s somewhat descriptive.
Others commenting: Brian Oberkirch, with a vote for dumping the term. TDavid, who (like me) has never much liked it. And more commenters on techmeme.
Good bye Web 2.0?? Let’s hope!
Update: Two good posts on Hacking Cough summarize the details pretty clearly.
Tags: Web 2.0, hype, social media
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Web 2.0: Call It What You Will
The latest meme is trying to erase “Web 2.0” from our vernacular. Fine. I don’t disagree. But, as RSS clearly shows us, we could call Web 2.0 jabberwocky and it wouldn’t matter. Blaming a tired phrase on the kind of delusional behavior that preceded th…
I am probably alone in this, at least HERE with Susan…: )
… but I sort of like the “Web 2.0” term. I say “sort of” because it smacks of a software upgrade and isn’t quite adequate to describe Next Generation web applications. OK, ok…it’s also a *little* hype-y.
But that being said, I think it’s catchy shorthand, it’s A LOT friendlier than “RSS,” and it suggests an evolution, which is exactly what’s going on. Shel’s suggestion of “social media” is good, too, but in my mind Web 2.0 is more easily grasped by a larger audience.
Thanks for the comment.
I was more balanced in earlier posts, at least in terms of linking to people who like the term 🙂
For the software industry, where I have spent a large part of my career, versioning has (some) meaning. A dot-oh release is a major release of a finished product. I just don’t think you can apply that line of reasoning to the Internet. Perhaps we are at some next level of Web but it is never going to be a finished product. There is no Web 2.0.
And then of course there is all the hype. Slap a Web 2.0 label on and call the M&A team 🙂