[iDC] Against Web 2.0

[Andreas Schiffler]

Trebor Scholz wrote:

>Wikipedia states about Web 2.0 as "a social phenomenon referring to an
>approach to creating and distributing Web content itself, characterized
>by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share
>and re-use." 
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0>
>
>Next time you hear Web 2.0 feel the sour aftertaste.
>  
>
As a technologist, I find it most fascinating how the Web2.0 trend -- which is essentially a rediscovery of existing technology (RSS - Netscape 1999, AJAX - XmlHttpRequest IE5, DHTML/CSS - IE5, etc.) that became popular with by browser-based companies (ie. Google - GoogleMaps) -- can transform into so much as a "social phenomenon".

Some observations: For example, Wikipedia is at best Web1.5 and could have been made with CGI scripts on IE3 in 1998. And why anyone would want to develop desktop applications that run in a browser is beyond me (morfik.com). While graphics card manufacturers are pushing 2Gpixels/sec down the pixel-pipeline, I am sitting here on my Firefox browser trying to figure out if the Web2.0 app/site is loading, has crashed or if I missed the click-target again ... I guess they forgot the "spinner" icon (or made it too small). And while there is a the semantic web with all its research and history, there is really NO semantic web that really makes a difference to the user - take RSS tagging: by now, its all spammed up anyhow (just do a technorati search for web20). Or take our corporate blog (blog.ic-agency.com) which is a web2.0 thing to do for an innovative company I guess (it was suggested that we all contribute from time to time). No tracebacks or comments so far and the stupid typepad service doesn't even provide a hit statistics on the articles - to get an audience, I guess one must advertise the blog on AdWords ... 
  
As for the web 2.0 as a business - I have one possible answer: the current VC money influx into the tech sector (the mini bubble, thus 2.0) is driven by a simple fact: VCs have still lots of money under management from the 1995-2000 bubble and will loose their comission if its not invested. So as a VC, what do you do: return the money to the investor or spend $6M on gather.com (and charge a 10% comission). Go figure!

With that in mind, lets play some bingo: http://web2.0bingo.com/