Comments on: Fast Times at Web 2.0 High

Spotplex CEO Doyon Kim writes that the Internet in-crowd is taking people back to high school, where the "cool kids" drown out the silent majority.

[Codonology]

same view shared by a codonologist

All I need to say, at this moment of time when Codonology is still being developed, that only time will tell.
Good future!
Hua Fang, MD

[QuetzalcoatlUSA]

painless memories

my public, former high school just created a Facebook-like web site for students and alumni. A friend let me log on as her so I could check it out. When I returned to my class year, everyone was already starting to associate themselves with the same cliques they ran with 15 years ago. The whole thing utterly disturbed me.

[hollowmyth]

You assume Web 2.0 is real

Web 2.0 is a ridiculous name put on a ridiculous "movement" by O'Reilly publishing corporation to sell conference tickets. There are no version numbers on the Web. It is continually evolving. And, if you're worried about nerds, artists and poets not having a voice, you're not visiting the same forums and sites I am. The Web is all about choice and free (or nearly so) access to publishing and information. I assume most of the people you talk about aren't visiting faceboook, myspace and youtube because they suck (in their opinion), not because they feel they can't be heard. There are other communities outside of the so-called Web 2.0 crowd and I'm sure there will be more when this whole silly business is laid to rest.

What does this mean financially? Will there be a bursting bubble? Yes, but it won't be as bad as the first. Like you say, there aren't as many companies putting everything into it this time and some of the business models are good. Unfortunately, however, for many companies the web has come to mean: "we need a social-networking site, too!" Not because there's a real need, but just because all the cool kids are doing it. And that will be the ultimate demise of "Web 2.0"...in my humble opinion, that is.

[jordan.willms]

I disagree

I disagree with your statements that web 2.0 is:

1) fundamentally flawed, and
2) somehow doesn't allow the quieter people to 'speak'

First of all, this next generation of the web has made it affordable, and easier, for artists, musicians, emo-kids, my friend's mom, or anyone else for that matter to get on the internet and express themselves, collaborate, and form niche networks that never could have existed before. If anything holds true about your 'high school' analogy, it would be that the internet is dominated, and driven by, cliques. It is true that only a fraction of the internet's users post flickr pictures -- but is that even relevant? (They could if they wanted to - unlike nerds in high school, who couldn't get on the football team even if they wanted to)

Social news sites in particular (like SpotPlex and Digg) are what is fundamentally flawed about web 2.0. Here you really have the 20% voting population (or the browsing population in SpotPlex's case) controlling the content that is displayed on your websites. This is inherently a popularity contest. At least StumbleUpon has tried to build discovery and niche exploration into their tool.

So please, don't take your arguments that are applicable to social news and extrapolate them across the entire web 2.0 movement. That is so high school of you :)

J
http://www.sumolabs.com

[Michael Mace]

How many voters, really?

>>more than 66 million people voted in the 2006 American Idol finale. Now imagine the results if only a small percentage of the population voted

Um, actually I think there were 66 million votes, not 66 million voters. Considering how many American Idol fans vote multiple times, the results of the show actually were controlled by a small percentage of the population.

I agree with you that the Web 2.0 crowd is a bit of an echo chamber, but they don't control which web apps and sites win. Average users decide that by their choice of places to click on and tools to use.

You've got a relatively small group of people who produce most of the content and tools, and a much larger audience that chooses the winners. That's not much different from the way traditional media has always worked, with the exception that the web lowers the barrier to entry for info creators.

[srkview]

Web2 High

Certainly web 2 has changed the way - we used to express ourselves but still struggling to understand revenue model for Web 2 companies and getting more worried day-by-day, if another dot com bust is round the corner!