|
The next Web 2.0 Conference will be upon us in early November and things are busier than ever in the Web 2.0 world. Along the way, I've managed to miss the one year anniversary of this blog, which I began back in late September of last year. There have been over 2.5 million direct hits on this site since inception, a large percentage of it due to my Web 2.0 lists such as last year's Best Web 2.0 Software List , but I also get e-mail frequently from die-hard readers as well. Most importantly however, from all my conversations with people all over the world, it's clear that Web 2.0 remains more than ever a topic of major popular interest and industry fascination.
While the general understanding of Web 2.0 is improving all the time, we have a ways to go before we have a concise, generally accepted definition. My favorite is still networked applications that explicitly leverage network effects. But while most of what we ascribe to the Web 2.0 name falls out of these definition, it's fairly hard for most of us to extrapolate meaningful ramifications from this.
People that read this blog know that I'm in the camp of folks that try to look beyond Ajax and the visual site design aspect of Web 2.0, and try to capture the deeper design patterns and business models that seem to be powering the most successful Web sites and online companies today. Though concepts such as harnessing collective intelligence and Data as the Next Intel Inside, as described by Tim O'Reilly , most directly capture the spirit of the Web 2.0 era, it does seem to me that there are a few other elements that we haven't nailed down yet.
At the AjaxWorld Conference and Expo earlier this month, I gave my usual talk about how to formally leverage Web 2.0, with plenty of examples coming from things happening out on the Web. If you accept that it's the power and size of the Web today , particularly the number of highly interactive network nodes (who are mostly people), give them extremely low-barrier tools, and we should be able to find plenty examples of emergent behavior; significant events happening suddenly and unexpectedly. Tipping points are getting easier and easier to reach as site designers learn how to create better network effect triggers, draw large audiences suddenly, and as those same audiences increasingly self-organize spontaneously, such as in the KatrinaList project (suddenly) or Wikipedia (slower but bigger).
And it's the arrival of Web 2.0 "supersites" like YouTube , which appear suddenly, often riding the coattails of other major Web 2.0 site's ecosystems, and apply aggressive, viral network effects that show us the true, full scale of the possibilities. Building a Web site worth over one billion dollars in 18 months is a very impressive result, but it's really only a single axis upon which Web 2.0 can be applied successfully. Another axis upon which to apply Web 2.0 focuses less on pulling in every single user possible with a horizontal network effect, but on building a difficult to reproduce but highly valuable data source, such as the Navteq mapping database, or Zillow's real estate database. One might argue that these are still very horizontal but these are merely just well known examples.
The variety and depth of the Web is such that not every Web 2.0 site will have tens of millions of users, nor should it. An effective Web 2.0 site is largely powered by its users, whose feedback and contributions, direct and indirect, make the site a living ecosystem that evolves from day to day, a mosaic as rich and varied as a sites users would like it to be. In other words, creating a high quality architectures of participation is becoming a strategic competitive advantage in many areas.
I'm often asked, particularly after one of my presentations on Web 2.0, to articulate the most important and effective actions a site designer can take to realize the benefits of Web 2.0. As a result, I've created the list below in a attempt to catpure a good, general purpose overview of what these steps are. My plan in the near future, is to dive into each one of these as much as time permits and explain how they make highly effective Web 2.0 sites not only effective, but often possible at all. In the meantime, please take them for what they're worth, I believe however that they are instrumental in making a Web site or application the most successful possible.
The Essentials of Leveraging Web 2.0
Of course, there a lot of work in the details and these are just some of the important, general essentials. Unfortunately, a lot of careful thinking, planning, and engineering goes into any effective Web 2.0 site and it's having these ideas at the core of it, which can help you get the best results.
Final Note: I'll be on the road the next two weeks and will be at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco from Nov. 7th-9th. I'll be there writing coverage for the Web 2.0 Journal and here as much as possible. If you're going to be there, please drop me a line if you'd like to meet.
Highly effective websites probably should fix their img tag width and
height so the image itself doesn't look like crap. :)
I've been out of the Web2.0 loop for a bit but this is an interesting
article to re-enrgize my creative juices!
Thank you, Dion. From your blog, I started to understand and learn Web
2.0. As you said, "Web 2.0 remains more than ever a topic of major
popular interest and industry fascination." It is a further step of
realizing the nature of human beings as we are all soical creatures.
Nowadays, Web simualtanously goes forward to its socality and
self-intelligence. Like the growing-up of a baby, the Web begins to grow
up being both a social body (Web 2.0) and an intelligent body (Semantic
Web). Look forward to having chances sharing with you more thinkings of
coupling the technologies of Web 2.0 and Semantic Web.
Dion. Your article and the Essentials of Leveraging Web 2 has strengthen my
decision to go forth with Web 2 implementations in my systems. Thanks.
Cool! Eagerly looking forward to your coverage from Web 2.0 Conference.
Build a power platform, with perpetual betas, and using the McAffe's SLATES
(Search, Links, Authoring, Tags, Extensions and Signals) could be the web
2.0 paradise..?? maybe, but the most important thing, I guess... is the
business model.
So, I'd add "Build a versatile business model.
While I completely enjoy and respect your application of these theories to
the Web 2.0 movement, I do not think this differs from general business
theories that are already out there and well accepted. As a matter of
fact, if you flip your chart upside down, it looks much like the "Crossing
the Chasm" diagram as articulately detailed by Geoffrey Moore in his book
(appropriately) titled Crossing the Chasm:
My day job is with a company who is reaching the chasm and working on
similar issues as the ones you point out here to build our bridge, and yet
I wouldn't necessarily call us a Web 2.0 company (even though we are
certainly a part of the current and future web application world).
I am not making this point to discredit what you say here but yet to
perhaps provide some the point that your ideas have a strong, already
supported foundation. The riddle of mass adaptation, mass consumption is
one that every money-making business has struggled with since the beginning
of time and finding our way from good idea to general acceptance is why we
all work so dang hard day in and day out.
Love your site! Keep up the good flow of information and ideas! And
thanks for always leaving the comments open. I believe that those who do
are the ones who really believe that no one ever becomes only a teacher,
but rather we all remain students.. a fact that for me makes each day
exciting.
While I completely enjoy and respect your application of these theories to
the Web 2.0 movement, I do not think this differs from general business
theories that are already out there and well accepted. As a matter of
fact, if you flip your chart upside down, it looks much like the "Crossing
the Chasm" diagram as articulately detailed by Geoffrey Moore in his book
(appropriately) titled Crossing the Chasm:
My day job is with a company who is reaching the chasm and working on
similar issues as the ones you point out here to build our bridge, and yet
I wouldn't necessarily call us a Web 2.0 company (even though we are
certainly a part of the current and future web application world).
I am not making this point to discredit what you say here but yet to
perhaps provide some the point that your ideas have a strong, already
supported foundation. The riddle of mass adaptation, mass consumption is
one that every money-making business has struggled with since the beginning
of time and finding our way from good idea to general acceptance is why we
all work so dang hard day in and day out.
Love your site! Keep up the good flow of information and ideas! And
thanks for always leaving the comments open. I believe that those who do
are the ones who really believe that no one ever becomes only a teacher,
but rather we all remain students.. a fact that for me makes each day
exciting.
There are two aspects about websites that you did not mention and which may
constitute Web 2.0 technology.
Yes I need advice on funding a 2.0 design that is in the building stages, I
am relinquishing 49% of the website to be purchased to fund the build,
release, hosting , legal, and advertising. Please advise on the best
strategy to attain these funds, also the best legal route to take on giving
up the 49%.
Dion, one question about the habits of highly effective web 2.0 site.
Thanks, very good post.
Thank you Dion..
By feedback loops I guess you mean allowing users to leave comments on
articles? Thats the way I interpret it anyway.
