Why Web2.0 was created

Max Kaizen quoted something Paul Graham said in a comment on the post “Who dictates the evolution of the web?” that is very interesting. Its a long post, but worth the read:

Tim says the phrase “Web 2.0″ first arose in “a brainstormingsession between O’Reilly and Medialive International.” What is Medialive International? “Producers of technology tradeshows and conferences,” according to their site. So presumably that’s what this brainstorming session was about. O’Reilly wanted to organize aconference about the web, and they were wondering what to call it.

I don’t think there was any deliberate plan to suggest there was a new version of the web. They just wanted to make the point that the web mattered again. It was a kind of semantic deficit spending: they knew new things were coming, and the “2.0″ referred to whatever those might turn out to be.

And they were right. New things were coming. But the new version number led to some awkwardness in the short term. In the process of developing the pitch for the first conference, someone must have decided they’d better take a stab at explaining what that “2.0″referred to. Whatever it meant, “the web as a platform” was at least not too constricting.

The story about “Web 2.0″ meaning the web as a platform didn’t live much past the first conference. By the second conference, what “Web 2.0″ seemed to mean was something about democracy. At least, it did when people wrote about it online. The conference itself didn’t seem very grassroots. It cost $2800, so the only people who could afford to go were VCs and people from big companies.

And yet, oddly enough, Ryan Singel’s article about the conference in Wired News spoke of “throngs of geeks.” When a friend of mine asked Ryan about this, it was news to him. He said he’d originally written something like “throngs of VCs and biz dev guys” but had later shortened it just to “throngs,” and that this must have in turn been expanded by the editors into “throngs of geeks.” After all, a Web 2.0 conference would presumably be full of geeks, right?

Well, no. There were about 7. Even Tim O’Reilly was wearing a suit, a sight so alien I couldn’t parse it at first. I saw him walk by and said to one of the O’Reilly people “that guy looks just like Tim.”

“Oh, that’s Tim. He bought a suit.” I ran after him, and sure enough, it was. He explained that he’d just bought it in Thailand.

The 2005 Web 2.0 conference reminded me of Internet trade shows during the Bubble, full of prowling VCs looking for the next hot startup. There was that same odd atmosphere created by a large number of people determined not to miss out. Miss out on what? They didn’t know. Whatever was going to happen—whatever Web 2.0 turned out to be.

I read another interesting thing Tim O’Reilly said a while ago when he was asked to give advice for 2007. The heading reads “Put yourself at the center of the action” It is taken out of Intelligence Magazine - the February 2007 edition. I’m not re-typing the entire article. Only the first two of his six points.

1. Be first

This is one of the immutable laws of marketing. Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic? Lindbergh. Who was the second? No Idea.

2. If you cannot be first, create a new category so you can be first.

Who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic? Amelia Earhart. New category. We did not have the first Web conference out there, but when we applied “Web2.0″ to the category, we created something new.

Although I’m pretty sure it was not the only reason why the term Web2.0 was created, it sure is a major reason! Interesting…

technorati tags:web2.0, marketing, business

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3 Comments to "Why Web2.0 was created"

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• stii.za.net » Blog Archive » How Carte Blanche could make it better next time said: On 03/07/2008 at 12:00 pm

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Filed in: Business, Marketing, Web 2.0 by: Stii