Techies hate the term "Web 2.0." I think that this distaste arises from the fact that there's no clear technical definition of the term. There's no W3C spec or even a working group that outlines what it is and how it works. Lack of an indisputable definition leads non-techies use the term poorly and indiscriminately - and this frequent occurrence really gets the techies' goat. I was recently at a conference in DC where an audience member asked the silver throated moderator to define the term. He was the kind of guy who shows up on TV and radio a lot. Without a pause, he said:
"Web 2.0 lets you put your personal profile online and have your friends link to it."
A techie in the audience literally smacked his hand to his head. He couldn't help it. The problem here, as I see it, is that the techies are looking for a technical definition in the first place. They suggest recasting Web2.0 to the "Social Web" or the "Live Web" among other terms. But these terms also miss the point.
The point is that non-technical people (ie: everyone - including silver throat) buy into the idea that something substantially new is happening in society. Paradoxically, "Web2.0" does not describe Web technologies at all. It more aptly describes a *phenomenon.* It's the phenomenon that people across technical, social, economic, and regional boundaries believe that we're entering a new era. This era is defined by radical economic, social, and technical shifts.
In his excellent book, Yochai Benkler describes the nuances of these shifts. At the core, it's about the means of production shifting from established interests to average people. This shift is monumental. It's disrupting business, work and family life.
"Web 2.0" is certainly not the most precisely accurate phrase to describe this phenomenon - It underwhelms by coupling itself to the Web. However, it's seeded itself across almost every social circle. It's a starting point and a common ground for defining our era. Rather than trying to recast the term in a technical manner, let's run with it. Let's use the term that everyone knows and start building a more nuanced understanding of it.
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