Still with Web 2.0 Definition

Since Profy.com is a fresh site, I’d still want to blog about what the heck Web 2.0 is all about. I’ll let the other talented ProBloggers at Profy.com scour the net and feature all they can find about Web 2.0 sites… hopefully there will be some left for me to cover when I am done…if ever…with this….:)

I’d like to bring your attention to Michael Arrington’s get together with a number of startup CEOs and executives to video a discussion about Web 2.0.

Participating in the discussion were Aaron Cohen (Bolt), Scott Milener and Steven Lurie (Browster), Keith Teare (edgeio), Steven Marder (Eurekster), Joe Kraus (JotSpot), Jeremy Verba (Piczo), Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf), Chris Alden (Rojo), Gautam Godhwani (Simply Hired), Jonathan Abrams (Socializr), David Sifry (Technorati), Matt Sanchez (Video Egg) and Michael Tanne (Wink).

The topics discussed included:

What is Web 2.0?
Are we in a bubble?
What are the business models that will work on the web today?
What is the role of publishers in a user generated world?
How important and how big is the early adopter crowd?

Read [Techcrunch] and watch the video about the discussion.

If you find the video is not that smooth, you can read the transcript of the interviews here.

Sadly to say, after listening to the video and reading the transcript, I’d say no one really understand Web 2.0, not even those so called CEOs of Web 2.0 startups themselves… the following quotes are the proof of how confused these CEOs were in defining Web 2.0.

Michael Arrington: So define Web 2.0 for me?

Jonathan Abrams: Sorry, Web two point… I’m not familiar with that term. Web 2.0. I don’t really know what Web 2.0 is anymore cause there is so many different definitions. Web 2.0, sometimes I think that means any company or site that uses a bunch of new trendy technologies like AJAX and mash-ups and tagging.

Chris Alden: Web two dot oh is twice as good as One dot oh. It’s twice as flavorful and half the calories. Web 2 dot oh is much more consumer friendly where virtually anyone can publish, anyone can build a profile, anyone can communicate using new kinds of tools and techniques.

Jeremny Verba: This generation of 10 to 20 year olds is now claiming the web as their own medium.

David Sifry: Yeah, it’s soil and green. Web 2 dot 0 is people. I think that’s the single biggest differentiator.

Aaron Cohen: I grew up a major Star Wars fan. And I think the important thing to understand about Web 2.0 is that Bolt and MySpace and Xanga and LiveJournal and YouTube are all part of something that I call the Republic. The Empire of course is network television. And we are all working together to take dollars away from network television.

Auren Hoffman: I would say Web 2.0 is about empowering the little guy to compete against the big guy. It’s really hard to give an example of a service where the big guys are really beating the small guys. And there’s millions and millions of early adopters rather than just thousands and thousands of early adopters. I mean, almost every single industry out there the smaller guys are out-competing the big guys. It’s very hard to find one that’s the opposite.

Scott Milener: So I think Web 2.0 is actually, initially just a moniker. It’s really just a word that we all needed to show that we were coming out of the doldrums after the bust to a new set of things. Journalists like to have it. Executives like to have it to talk about it. Venture capitalists love a word like that to rally around.

Gautam Godhwani: The idea that more and more of our connections are coming online and now we can actually make decisions based on our networks and the people we know.

Matt Sanchez: The idea of Web 2.0 to me marks an inflection point in web development and web technologies.

Now do you see what I am trying to convey? And if those guys can’t even get their act together as to what Web 2.0 means, no wonder there are so called Web 2.0 websites mushrooming all over the web, claiming to be Web 2.0 compliance all with their own definition… I’d say Web 2.0 is the single most interesting development of the new internet technology with no one really knows what it is. I rest my case.