April 21, 2008
Web 2.0 Expo Is Here; Also, WTF Is Web 2.0?
The west coast leg of the Web 2.0 Expo is here! Yay!
Wait, just what is this Internet-y web 2.0 exposition, exactly? Aside from the open-bar fetes presumably laced with cocaine and boobs, that is. According to their site, Web 2.0 Expo is:
Co-produced by TechWeb and O'Reilly Media, [Web 2.0] is a conference and tradeshow for the rapidly growing ranks of designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, and business strategists who are embracing the opportunities created by Web 2.0 technologies.
Confused? So were we until we heard from entrepreneur and SFist commenter Dan Berkes. He skillfully describes this week's expo thusly:
O'Reilly. I won't pay them a cent because every geek desperate for e-fame sucks their cock. And their conferences are full of people very impressed with themselves. If they would let me attend for free and disperse some poison gas, I would gladly attend.
Ah, that's more like it. And in an area of the world littered with smarmy and backstabbing e-fame and political whores, we can only image what poison gas-worthy people will be in attendance. (Including SFist, of course, the Tara Reid of local online celebrities.) This also begs the question: just what the hell is this newfangled web 2.0? But that's another story for another time.
Anyway, for mere $100 you can rub elbows with industry leaders and tech folk of note, all of whom makes loads more money that you ever will in your entire life. For a schedule of events, go here.
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I'm with Dan - yet another O'Reilly conference about some buzzwords they made up. Where do people get the time and money to attend all these things? Or is it only going to be full of bloggers?
i hope not.
I can explain Web 2.0 for everyone.
It's a room full of people who got screwed the first time around so now they're trying to (re)sugar coat the bullshit (again) and figure out how to make money on the next round of suckers who get in late and believe the hype.
Me? I'm waiting for hell to open up and swallow Jim Cramer live on national television.
I hear if your Webs are 2.0, they don't go down as much.
In all seriousness, the Web 2.0 push has always skeeved me out. I'm down with the idea of user-generated content, and lots of sharing between websites, but I fail to see how this translates to AD REVENUE FOR EVERYONE AND ALSO COOKIES~! Web 2.0 isn't a magic money fountain, and a lot of the things that make good Web 2.0 sites aren't all that different from what makes good Web 1.0 sites.
I think Web 2.0 was supposed to shift the focus of Internet technologies to the front end. The idea being that this is a chance for designers and developers to reinvent and improve the way users interact with the technology - something like AJAX which have changed the way users fill out forms online is a good example.
The tools to build the 'Web experience' were supposed to become more democratic. i.e. anyone can 'create'. (think of photobucket mashups, virtual tshirts at IMVU)
Of course, all of this 'power/technology to the people' constantly draws the ire of the technological elite- the engineers. Designers also tend to feel much the same way. Imagine, the thing that only a few people were really good at turning in to something that is constantly being made easy for *anyone* to accomplish.
So.... the Guitar Hero of the internets?
"AJAX makes it easier to fill in forms" Ha, ha, that pretty much sums the whole thing up.
Web 1.0: "We lose money on every transaction but we make up for it in volume."
Web 2.0: "We lose money on every transaction but we make up for it by charging your kid $7 for a ringtone."