What is Web 2.0?
using the Web in the way it’s meant to be used
James G. Kim
jgkim@jayg.org
October 2008

Source: http://www.31415926535.net/kf/knc-photos2008/page_01.htm

“Nobody even knows what it means”
Source: IBM, http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/
Source: http://www.31415926535.net/kf/knc-photos2008/page_01.htm

It’s Not That Simple

Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

4

1

technology

Source: Ludwig Gatzke, http://flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/

Aggregators Wikis
Folksonomy User Centered Joy of Use
Blogs
Pagerank
Participation Six Degrees
Usability Widgets
XFN Social Software FOAF Browser
Recommendation Collaboration Simplicity
Videocasting Sharing Perpetual Beta AJAX
Podcasting
Audio Design
IM
Convergence
Video
Web 2.0 CSS
Pay Per Click
UMTS Affiliation
Mobility Atom SVG Ruby on Rails Trust
XHTML VC
OpenAPIs RSS Semantic Web Standards Economy
SEO
OpenID
Remixability REST Standardization The Long Tail
Data-Driven XML
Accessibility
Microformats Syndication
SOAP
Modularity
Source: Ludwig Gatzke, http://flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/
Source: Markus Angermeier, http://kosmar.de

Long Tail
collaboration
Microformats
community XML
RDF
RSS Atom
collective MCF
intelligence mash-up
Web as platform ASP SaaS Podcast
folksonomy
Flash RIA
DHTML
AJAX
first website wiki XMLHttpRequest
Web Services
social software
journal blog SOAP Web 2.0
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Source: Jürgen Schiller Garica, http://www.scill.de

new technologies

new technologies
come and go

perpetual βeta

the physics of the Web

Source: AJAXWorld 2006 West Power Panel

AJAX, Podcast, folksonomy,
microformats, mash-ups, and etc.

technologies

“techniques”

“techniques”
rather than
technologies

Source: AJAXWorld 2006 West Power Panel

Source: Stephen Danelutti, http://trans4mbiz.blogspot.com

and

Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick Google AdSense
Ofoto Flickr
Akamai BitTorrent
mp3.com Napster
Britannica Online Wikipedia
personal websites blogging
evite upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation search engine optimization
page views cost per click
screen scraping web services
publishing participation
content management systems wikis
directories (taxonomy) tagging (folksonomy)
stickiness syndication
Source: Tim O’Reilly, http://www.oreilly.com

nothing in common

nothing in common
except the old stuff

Source: http://www.31415926535.net/kf/knc-photos2008/page_01.htm

“it means using the standards
which have been produced
by all these people working on Web 1.0”
Source: IBM, http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/
Source: http://www.31415926535.net/kf/knc-photos2008/page_01.htm

so

Is it a “technical term”?

hardly to say
It’s a “technical term”

“a piece of jargon”

2

philosophy

“Ironically, Tim Berners-Lee’s original Web 1.0 is
one of the most “Web 2.0” systems out there”
Source: Tim O’Reilly, http://www.oreillynet.com
Source: Charlton Barreto, http://www.flickr.com/people/charlton_b/

It’s been a platform

Source: http://www.31415926535.net/kf/knc-photos2008/page_01.htm

“I hope the Web will continue to be a nice clean platform
on which people keep developing other things”
Source: IBM, http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/
Source: http://www.31415926535.net/kf/knc-photos2008/page_01.htm

“a single, global information space”
Source: Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web

What could be
the most important thing
in this space?

Data is the Next Intel Inside

and

It completely harnesses

the power of user contribution

the power of user contribution
collective intelligence

the power of user contribution
collective intelligence
network effects

What is a “network effect”?

“when a good or service
has more value the more that
other people have it too”
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

network effects
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

e-mail

instant messaging

webpages

blogs

the Web

It gets better

It gets better
the more people use them

collective intelligence

exponential growth
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

however

nothing new

not a new version of the Web

Source: AJAXWorld 2006 West Power Panel

so

It’s not a “philosophical term”

3

culture

Source: Stephen Danelutti, http://trans4mbiz.blogspot.com

started to use the Web

started to use the Web
in the way it’s meant to be used

explicitly leveraging network effects
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

through

architecture of participation
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

then

exponential growth
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

Reselling its platform and data online netted $345MM in 2007
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008

Created the world’s leading online video service in 18 months
with $10MM investment
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008

Built social networking platform into 60 million customer
phenomenon worth $15-100B in 19 months
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008

Source: TechCrunch, http://www.techcrunch.com

now

Source: Tristan Nitot, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nitot/

thanks to

thanks to
the physics of the Web

ubiquitous
Source: Giorgio Montersino, http://www.flickr.com/photos/novecentino/

software above
the level of a single device

Source: Bill Walker, http://www.flickr.com/photos/w3inc/

and

Web

two-way
Web

read/write
Web

Source: Time Magazine

something new

Source: AJAXWorld 2006 West Power Panel

so

“a set of clearly apparent,
widespread new trends
in the way that
the Web is being used”
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, Web 2.0 Oltre

Source: Google Trends

I think

I think
It’s a “cultural term”

4

business

“coined by Dale Dougherty during a meeting between
O’Reilly and Associates (a computer book publisher)
and MediaLive International (an event organizer)
as a marketable term for a series of conferences”
Source: Russell Shaw, http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/

a huge umbrella term

Source: AJAXWorld 2006 West Power Panel

“They knew things were coming,
and the “2.0” referred to
whatever those might turn out to be”
Source: Paul Graham, http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html

“2.0”?

not a new version of the Web

perpetual βeta

nevertheless

things need names

Source: AJAXWorld 2006 West Power Panel

then

buzzword?

Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2006
Source: Gartner

could be

Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2008
Source: Gartner

not anymore

bubble 2.0?

I don’t think so

Source: TechCrunch, http://www.techcrunch.com

Source: Bernard Lunn, http://www.readwriteweb.com

Web 1.5
dot-com bubble
Web 2.0
Web 1.0
Source: Google Finance

and

startups are different

“a smaller, younger, more technical group
that just decided to make something great”
Source: Paul Graham, http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html

“the tendency is to stay small,
almost humorously small.”
Source: Stowe Boyd, http://getreal.corante.com

less money
Source: 37signals, http://www.37signals.com/svn

less people
Source: 37signals, http://www.37signals.com/svn

less time
Source: 37signals, http://www.37signals.com/svn

less abstraction
Source: 37signals, http://www.37signals.com/svn

less software
Source: 37signals, http://www.37signals.com/svn

more constraints
Source: 37signals, http://www.37signals.com/svn

Lightweight Programming Models

“Dynamic languages like Ruby and
simple data formats like RSS, REST make
development, integration, testing, and reuse
easy and more cost-effective”
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/

business models
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.wsj2.com

so

It could be a “marketing term”

SO

Web 2.0 means this new era

Web 2.0 means this new era
using the Web in the way
it’s meant to be used

“renaissance”

Source: Mike Rohde, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/

Source: Jessica, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fenchurch/

Source: Menlo School, http://www.flickr.com/photos/menlophoto/

Source: Marc Worrell, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mworrell/

Source: Sarah Naegels, http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagels/