The concept of “Web 2.0″ began with a conference brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that far from having “crashed”, the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. I don’t think there was any deliberate plan to suggest there was a new version of the web, or trying to define the latest technology gadgets. They just wanted to make the point that the web mattered again.
The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. In Web 1.0, a small number of writers created Web pages for a large number of readers. The separation between those along for the ride and the real success stories became apparent as the web of documents has morphed into a Web of data. Over time, however, more and more people started writing content in addition to reading it. We are no longer just looking to the same old sources for information. Now we’re looking to a new set of tools to aggregate and remix micro content in new and useful ways. Along with advances in the use of technology for the remix, two social elements arose from the ashes.
The first big element of Web 2.0 is democracy. The most dramatic example of Web 2.0 democracy is not in the selection of ideas, but their production. Associated Press CEO Tom Curley made an important and far-reaching keynote speech to the Online News Association Conference. In it he said, “… content will be more important than its container in this next phase [of the Web]… Killer apps, such as search, RSS and video-capture software such as TiVo—to name just a few—have begun to unlock content from any vessel we try to put it in.”
The second element of Web 2.0 is the social interaction impact. Sites like Facebook or Flickr tap into this motivation. Yochai Benkler discusses a similar distinction between “extrinsic” motivations and “intrinsic” motivations. Extrinsic motivations come from the marketplace, and involve money. Intrinsic motivations come from within, such as pleasure or personal satisfaction. Both of these motivations are also appropriate in some situations and not others.
This distinction is important in social design because so many of the activities people participate in online are motivated from a desire of social standing, not economic standing. What the big social network sites are doing is similar: they’re creating a place where social standing, not economic standing, is the primary motivation. Or, more to the point, they’re modeling that part of our lives in which we yearn for social standing.
Web 2.0 means using the web the way it’s meant to be used. The “trends” we’re seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it during the Bubble. The whole point of Web 2.0 is making every website work together and connect with each other seamlessly. It’s not just flashy AJAX programming, live updating, or cool rounded edges. It’s about the convergence of all internet technology into one collective memory.
This was inspired by these great folks in the field:
What is Web 2.0 - Tim O’Rielly
Web 2.0 - Paul Graham
Facebook’s Brilliant but Evil design - Joshua Porter