Mark Evans e-mailed me yesterday with a link to some really cool thoughts about Web 2.0. I think this is a continuation of my thinking on Web 2.0 is too abstract. Michael McDerment has some great thinking here (oh and here as PDF:PDF of the Web 2.0 Chronicles – Volume One). 
One thing that struck me, like right between the eyes, was the connection with the Microsoft news of this week. Then I moved into the meat of the document (yeah I printed it … but two pages per side and reused paper) and really got into it. For me, and maybe not others, one of the key points is that “Web 2.0″ isn’t really anything new. The same business rules apply, a square wheel is still a square wheel with a .com or a blog … it still won’t work.
So is Web 2.0 any different? Well, yes it is. I think it is the enabling technologies that are making the difference. Things like RSS, blogs, AJAX, .Net. Things that allow people to make fast, light apps. Things that let you create and extension to something larger. So this the second important difference. Apps are built to be extended. Look at Mozilla, Flickr, Google’s many tools. These are apps almost built to be taken further by others. Now, business models. I think the ad-supported model is the one people are getting more used to. We still watch TV, even though there are ads. Even “commercial free” TV like PBS has to “advertise” (pledge drives) to get money. Personally, I have a mix of apps that I use that are open-source, GPL, commercial, and ad-supported. I don’t mind, okay I mind, paying for apps.
I look at Qumana. We’re a Web 2.0 company by leveraging blogging and advertising. I think it’s pretty innovative. Innovative or not … new businesses need cash to start and revenue to keep going. Maybe Web 2.0 will just be something after all.
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