Web 2.0 is Dead, Long Live Web 2.0

Tim O’Reilly’s recent post re-articulates and constrains the core meaning of “Web 2.0” against the incursion of mass media and blogger re/misdefinitions. Here’s the nugget:

I define Web 2.0 as the design of systems that harness network effects to get better the more people use them, or more colloquially, as “harnessing collective intelligence.” This includes explicit network-enabled collaboration, to be sure, but it should encompass every way that people connected to a network create synergistic effects.

So the vital point (or one of them) is that Web 2.0 is driven by network externalities. Why the grim pronouncement in the title? Because we’re already past the point that this could be captured or conceived of as a “web phenomenon.” We’ve been there, done that.

How do I know? The Obama ‘08 iPhone App. I can’t say anything any better than Raven Zachary, team lead for the application, so I strongly encourage you to read his blog post and the announcement on the official page. Without reference to the actual election, I can say with some confidence that this is one of the most vital applications to release for the iPhone to date. It captures the essentials of O’Reilly’s definition; it relies upon old and new technologies (it is, after all, about picking up the phone and calling someone); it assumes that the network effects are driving both adoption and activism around the app.

That’s a lot to ask of a development team, any development team. But if you’re looking to leverage Web 2.0 for [insert mercenary motivation here], you could do a lot worse than make your company’s widget look and act something like Obama ‘08.

Note that I’m not suggesting that the web is dead - the app itself accesses the web to get information about the campaign, issues briefs, etc. The real question is how are we accessing the web? What are the clients and standards that we need to focus on? What will your customers be doing online in five years? Because I can guarantee that it won’t often involve a desktop computer.