Christine ™ aka Big Pink Cookie To Make a Short Story Long…

Web 7.2…

Over the past few weeks (ok, years, but it has been really heavy the past few weeks), I have heard the term Web 2.0 tossed around a lot. Thank goodness for Wikipedia, I finally found a definition:

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004,[1] refers to a perceived second generation of web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. O’Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences, and since 2004 some developers and marketers have adopted the term.

I have to admit it. I think it is a rather goofy term. It is true, and very accurate, to say tha tthe web has grown and changed over the years. I believe it is constantly changing. Every single day, new innovations appear online. To draw a line and say that everything before a time is the 1.0 version, and after is 2.0, is a bit silly. And if you ask me, aren’t we up to Web 7.2 or something like that now? That was the point I brought up last night while at the Houston NetSquared meeting.

2004 is a LONG time ago in web terms.

I also have to say that I agree with Robert Scoble as I see Blackberry phones everywhere now and with the iPhone coming out soon, maybe we need to start thinking about Mobile 2.0 instead of (or in addition to) Web 2.0? Just today, I used my phone to answer e-mails and look up maps. I snapped photos of books I wanted to remember the names of. Plus I made phone calls. When we do our next art market, I will be able to use it to validate credit cards on the spot online. (We do not have the volume to make leasing a credit card processing machine anywhere near worthwhile, but ProPay has worked well for me over the past several years.)

Rapidly, cell phones are becoming so much more, and finding them in the hands of everyday users is becoming a common thing. We need to start taking that into consideration in our way of thinking.

it seems to me that “web 2.0″ has gone from a buzz term to a punchline lately. i’ve even seen sarcastic references to things being “web 4.0″!

There was a panel at SXSW that was about going from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, which is where Mike informed me after I wrote this that we are moving into now.

Personally, I think we need to accept that it is constantly evolving.

I for one am completely sick of Web 2.0. Yet the influence remains for what the brand name stands for. Evidence is the Web 2.0 conference selling out months and months in advance. So there it is. We all don’t like the moniker but someone has to tell the academy.