What does Web 2.0 mean to you?

[kevroses]

I've heard a lot recently about Web 2.0, but I can't say that I know for sure what that means yet. It seems to me like this is the next great competition: to redefine the Web beyond just browsers and e-mail services. OK, fine. But what do we expand into? How will we know what Web 2.0 looks like? Or is the term just a buzzword, empty of actual meaning?

I realize that this is an enormous, open-ended question. But that's why I've got it in the "Off-Topic" forum, because it includes practically *all* topics, perhaps. Let's get this started. I'm deeply curious about what Web 2.0 means to everyone out there.

[Don't Panic!]

I thought it was the same as the NGI Initiative (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1997/nsf-0604.html) experiment at universities and some select organizations.
Now I've learned it's just a new name for an old thing. Making money on the internet.

[Janak Parekh]

I've heard a lot recently about Web 2.0, but I can't say that I know for sure what that means yet. It seems to me like this is the next great competition: to redefine the Web beyond just browsers and e-mail services. OK, fine. But what do we expand into? How will we know what Web 2.0 looks like? Or is the term just a buzzword, empty of actual meaning?
As usual, Wikipedia is a great start for this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0):

The term Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation, Web 2.0 gives users an experience closer to desktop applications than the traditional static Web pages. Web 2.0 applications often use a combination of techniques devised in the late 1990s, including public web service APIs (dating from 1998), Ajax (1998), and web syndication (1997). They often allow for mass publishing (web-based social software). The concept may include blogs and wikis.

There are a lot of variations, of course, but the basic idea is that you're no longer editing HTML, etc. to make content available on the web; instead, you're using a collection of (somewhat standardized) tools and clever scripting to reduce the barrier to online collaboration and publication.

There's a lot of promise behind it, but the term itself is mostly marketing, and as such I don't use it much.

--janak