Web 2.0 is a Ham Radio

Periods of Innovation usually come on the backs of adepts.  Those who form a cabal, focus strongly on an area, and pull out the arcane secrets.  These adepts can get quite mystical about their craft - sometimes scaring or alienating the general public.

Web 2.0 is no exception.

Dion Hinchcliffe and Adam Green have both commented on the growing "walls of confusion" surrounding Web 2.0.  Dion lists these as buzzwords, hype, complexity, ignorance and significance.  These are classic innovation elements.  Brain surgery, the electric lightbulb and farming are all filled with these five elements.  So, while I'm certain these may perplex people who haven't yet joined the Web 2.0 conversation -- I wouldn't say that that these walls are specific to Web 2.0.

The Web 2.0 community is made up primarily of wonks, geeks, enthusiasts, and so forth.  In short, we're a bunch of ham radio operators, complete with the weird glimmer in our eyes when we passionately tell people that there is nothing in life more spiritually fulfilling than our ham radio (RSS).

The world of Web 2.0 right now is highly fragmented, with a million billion points of presence.  Lots of little applications that do one or two things out there.  Most people don't have the time or the interest to keep up with that.  They look at Web 2.0 calendars and say "Outlook does a lot more than that", they look at Writely and say "Word already does more than that", they look at del.icio.us and say "What the hell is that?"

So, at present, Web 2.0 has a stylized face that only a mother could love.

We, in the community, are really excited about it.  But just as most blogs are about blogging - most Web 2.0 apps are currently about web 2.0ing.  They want to show that they are super Web 2.0y so they can be flipped.

Dion has argued and I have grudgingly accepted that this might not be a bad thing.  The Web 2.0 cauldron of applications bubbles out a few gems which are picked up by a huge corporation.  That's where public acceptance would logically occur.  Maybe one or more Web 2.0 startups will become a huge corporation on their own - but most successful ones would be bought out.

And why is this?  Context.  Yes, it's context again!  At present, Web 2.0 apps serve sliver needs and usually need to be introduced into a larger context for the public to grasp. 

To overextend the metaphor, Web 2.0's Walls of Confusion surround its ivory tower.  Inside the tower we are creating elements that test the limits of Web 2.0 theory - the applications exist in the context of theory.  Outside, people are looking for a different context.  It's just a little different now because the previously opaque ivory walls are now transparent.  Everyone can see what we're doing - they see works in progress - they see elements out of context.  Perhaps these walls of confusion are the transparent walls of our Web 2.0 tower.

Photo: Kenn Kiser

Technorati Tags: web 2.0, magic, ham radio, wizardry, innovation, context