Dion Hinchcliffe at Web 2.0 Expo

On Sunday afternoon (April 15) I attended Dion Hinchcliffe's workshop "What is Web 2.0: The Rules for Creating Successful Online Products in the 21st Century". This was an abbreviated three-hour version of a day-long workshop from Dion's "Web 2.0 University" program.

What is Web 2.0?

Defining "Web 2.0" remains a difficult task, a few years into into the Web 2.0 era. I've browsed heated debates on whether "Web 2.0" means anything, or is just a gimmick phrase. Dion had several slides that posed definitions of the term. One said that Web 2.0 is:

• Ajax
• user-generated content
• social software
• syndication and services (open APIs)

Dion then quoted two working definitions of Web 2.0, from Tim O'Reilly:

Web 2.0 consists of "networked applications that explicitly leverage network effects"

the core principle of Web 2.0 is "harnessing collective intelligence"

Elaborating the Definitions

In great measure, the following three days of the Expo elaborated these concepts and definitions. For example, Ajax is a key enabler for creating web sites that provide the interactivity that is needed for the user experience to be acceptable. Reloads of pages every time a user enters a response do not work, the delays are too long. Ajax's means of simply loading the portion of the page that is to be updated (by directly accessing the open APIs, for example), makes the response time much more acceptable.

Ajax enables a user experience that encourages people to enter their own content, and to engage in online social activity. It is this social activity that creates the network effects and the possibility of harnessing collective intelligence. But these cannot occur without a properly designed application, created with these purposes in mind.

Hence, a significant segment of the Web 2.0 Expo sessions focussed on application and site design. Some interesting statements from Dion's presentation:

• data is the next "Intel inside"
• Web 2.0 software "gets better the more people use it"
• unique formulas are a key element of many of today's successful Web applications
• radical simplicity in usage is critical: externally clear interaction models; no training required
• a platform beats an application every time
• value has moved up the stack from software to information (for example, Google)
• the blogosphere is exceeded in size only by the entire Web itself

Conclusion

All in all, it was another highly-educational, well-spent three hours.

-- Kevin Farnham
O'Reilly Media