TechCrunch recently posted a 29 minute video of an interview with a bunch of Web 2.0 CEO’s about what they thought Web 2.0 was, trends, etc. First off I was surprised how measured most of the comments were, especially around what Web 2.0 is, and what leapt out for me was how much Web 2.0 is actually about how technology connects and empowers people. Web 2.0 may not be social media, but it is the fundamental infrastructure. Anyway, here are some select quotes from the video, that can be found here on techcruch in a very 1.0 video format embedded in a webpage with no way to share it or navigate it, just 29 sequential minutes (ever heard of Veo tagging), anyway:
Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf)
David Sifry (Technorati)
Jeremy Verba (Piczo)
Aaron Cohen (Bolt)
Michael Tanne (Wink)
Gautam Godhwani (Simply Hired)
Steven Marder (Eurekster)
Scott Milener and Steven Lurie (Browster)
Mike Arrington (TechCrunch)
Random quotes:
“User generate content”
“Anyone can publish, anyone can communicate”
Biggest WTF quote comes from Mike Arrington - “If a company isn’t involved in removing friction from the process then it probably isn’t a web 2.0 company for me” - Come to think of it AJAX is a pretty good brand name for a lubricant. Joking aside, Trust has often been revered to as the lubricant of cooperation, maybe web 2.0 extends that metaphor.
Aggregate quote - Publishers are moving from being in control of the entire process to being curators or stewards of content from an infinite number of sources
Interestingly, no mention of SecondLife or Avatars, so maybe SecondLife and the metaverse is actually Web 3.0.
Good recap Karl. Yep, everyone is getting their minds/hands around blogging/vlogging/podcasts and Wikis–more talk on Avatars and the like will follow. Give it time.
I particularly appreciate 2 comments:
#1: Sifry’s ‘Participant Economy’. I’ve called it the Empowerment Era, Vaspers has called it The Share Economy. They all fit but Participant really resonates with me.
#2: Hoffman’s remarks on time. We all thought we had no time, but we actually had loads of it. It was just passive time. I’ve gone to almost zero “passive” time (meaning I hardly watch any TV, still read a lot of books & mags, but I don’t consider that passive per se). I think passive, mind-numbing activities are important (we do need a rest here and there)–but they held far too much time in our past lives.
Amazing how much thing’s have changed, actually.
Thanks much for the recap.
“From a traditional media companies perspective the best kind of consumer is one that is strapped to his chair, fed content and craps cash”
LMAO! How many people are going to pass this off as their own quote?
When I say Share Economy, I’m not talking about Martin L. Weitzman’s book The Share Economy. In that book he describes a two wage system, part salary part profit sharing, to alleviate layoffs, etc.
What I mean is how you freely and abundantly Share what you have and know, which eventually leads to an Economy of people wanting more material, more complex, more advanced, or more customized versions, accompanied by a willingness to pay for it.
This seems to be the only really viable way to sell music, for example. Put free mp3s of entire albums online, then have other albums for which you charge money. There is too much music out there, and musician sites make a huge mistake by not offering free mp3s, of entire songs and albums, to the music buying public.
Web 2.0 is really making the web do what it was originally intended to do, but the technology was not there yet. More interactive, more user-controlled, more modular (as in mashups).