Gee... David

I am reading "Wikinomics" and "Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide: Business thinking and strategies behind successful Web 2.0 implementations" I will happily concede that Web 2.0 could not happen in the absence of technology. What concerns me is that Web 2.0 has been happening for several years and ignorance of it remains pervasive. The latter of the books I mentioned was published in August of 2008 and the prefix is an eloquent statement of what 'it' is. Yet business leaders and the technologists that support them remain, in far too many cases, clueless.

Web 2.0 is not about Ajax or REST or Web Services. It is about massive collaboration that can be conscious or unconscious. The outcome of this collaboration would shock the socks off of Adam Smith ("The Wealth of Nations") because today people collaborate, socialize, participate, and as a consequence create value. Real 'spendable' value. Ask Amazon. The changing shape of the market is not the demise of the market it is the radical reinvention of the market and, as such, we who participate in the online world are creating value, if not for ourselves, for someone else.

My thoughts today turn to our own web site. It is very much a Web 1.0 presence. The absence of community or much participation in the on-line community, as a business indicates that businesses like ours may not fully grasp what benefits can be gained from the Web 2.0 world. It is far, far more than simply creating a site that looks nice and has interesting information. Today's most compelling sites are communities. Consider IBM Developerworks as an example of a site reinvented. Wikis abound.

For companies such as mine we must consider the idea that 'playing our cards close to the vest' will ultimately work against us. Consider how Google has enlisted tens of thousands of volunteers to dream up new applications and ways to use them. Or, to borrow again from IBM, consider how the Lotus brand has leveraged collaborative creativity with IdeaJam. Really, right now, check it out and see how people are helping IBM Lotus generate value and target product enhancements in a way that a semester of focus groups could never do.

Web 2.0 is far more than hype and yet many of us are, sad to say, happy to live with a vague sense that something is happening and have no idea that the value we create is wealth in another's pocket.