From the title, you might
be thinking that I'm
about to start this
month's editorial with a
reference to talking to
animals and somehow tie
that into SOA. Instead,
what I actually would
like to talk about is the
pushmi-pullyu (I got the
spelling from Wikipedia;
I always thought it was
'push-me pull
I've been spending a lot of time lately with folks around the mid-Atlantic region and talking to them about Web 2.0. I get the expected full spectrum of responses ranging from genuine interest and active enthusiasm to some outright hostility. Part of it is where the Web 2.0 space is still: an elite niche of technologists with a growing wider awareness that's just beginning.
Most of us know that the technology industry and the Web are often far out ahead of the mainstream. The fact is that the general public is still struggling with blogs and wikis, much less full blown architectures of participation and software as a service (to name just two aspects of Web 2.0). Not sure about this? Try sampling a few people at random and ask them what a blog is. You will probably be surprised with the answers. Nevertheless, I'm extremely sanguine about Web 2.0 and where it's headed (notwithstanding Bubble 2.0 type events like the RSS Fund assembling a massive $100 million warchest and using it with questionable judgement.)
While generally exciting and engaging by most accounts, one thing my public presentations on Web 2.0 don't seem to address is the value proposition to the average person or organization. Why should they spend their valuable time to leverage Web 2.0 ideas, participate in Web 2.0 software, or even create new Web 2.0 functionality? How exactly does taking the effort to do this become worthwhile? That question doesn't seem to be asked often enough or generally articulated. Web 2.0 is exciting enough in its own right to sustain lots of interest and buzz, but how does it translate to delivering tangible value to the world at large?
To address this, I've thought fairly long and hard, and come up with a starting point at least. I've tried to create the most distilled, direct explanation of the benefits that Web 2.0 best practices can provide in using and building engaging, useful software on the Web.
Five Reasons Why Web 2.0 Matters
The Focus of Technology Moves To People With Web 2.0. One of the lessons the software industry relearns every generation is that it's always a people problem. It's not that people are the actual problem of course. It's when software developers naively use technology to try to solve our problems instead of addressing the underlying issues that people are actually facing. Then the wrong things inevitably happen; we've all seen technology for its own sake or views of the world which are focused much too little on where people fit into the picture. Put another way, people and their needs have to be at the center of any vision of software because technology is only here to make our lives and businesses better, easier, faster or whatever else we require. Web 2.0 ideas have been successful (at least) because they effectively put people back into the technological equation. This even goes as far as turning it on its head entirely and making the technology about people. Web 2.0 fundamentally revolves around us and seeks to ensure that we engage ourselves, participate and collaborate together, and mutually trust and enrich each other, even though we could be separated by the entire world geographically. And Web 2.0 gives us very specific techniques to do this and attempts to address the "people problem" directly.
Web 2.0 Represents Best Practices. The ideas in the Web 2.0 toolbox were not pulled from thin air. In fact, they were systematically identified by what actually worked during the first generation of the Web. Web 2.0 contains proven techniques for building valuable Web-based software and experiences. The original Design Patterns book was one of the most popular books of its time because it at long last represented distilled knowledge of how to design software with ideas couched in a form that were reusable and accessible. So too are the Web 2.0 best practices. If you want to make software deliver the very best content and functionality to its users, Web 2.0 is an ideal place to start.
Web 2.0 Has Excellent Feng Shui. Yes, I'll get in trouble for stating it this way but I think it fits, here goes... I'm a technologist by background and I don't buy into the new-agey vision of Web 2.0 that has sometimes been promulgated. And I certainly don't believe that Web 2.0 has a "morality" as the famous Tim O'Reilly/Nicholas Carr debate highlighted. However, as someone that has designed and built lots of software for two decades now, I have plenty of regard for the way the pieces of Web 2.0 fit together snugly and mutually reinforce each other. Why does this matter? It has to do with critical mass and synergy, two vital value creation forces. Taken individually, Web 2.0 techniques like harnessing collective intelligence, radical decentralization, The Long Tail are quite powerful, but they all have a potency much greater than their simple sum and they strongly reinforce each other. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that only "doing" parts of Web 2.0 can get you into some real trouble. You need a core set of Web 2.0 techniques in order to be successful and then the value curve goes geometric. This is why the ROI of software built this way is so much greater. Here's an earlier post that provides more detailed examples of why this is.
Quality Is Maximized, Waste Is Minimized. The software world is going through one of its cyclical crises as development jobs go overseas and older, more bloated ways of building software finish imploding as the latest software techniques become more agile and lightweight (sometimes called lean). The guys over at 37Signals say it best... Using Web 2.0 you can build better software with less people, less money, less abstractions, less effort, and with this increase in constraints you get cleaner, more satisfying software as the result. And simpler software is invariably higher quality.
Web 2.0 Has A Ballistic Trajectory. Never count out the momentum of a rapidly emerging idea. For example, I'm a huge fan of Eric Evans' Domain Driven Design but it's so obscure that it will probably never get off the ground in a big way. There's no buzz, excitement, or even a general marketplace for it. This is Web 2.0's time in the sun, deserved or not. You can use the leviathan forces of attention and enthusiasm that are swirling around Web 2.0 these days as a powerful enabler to make something important and exciting happen in your organization. Use this opportunity to seize the initiative, ride the wave, and build great software that matters.
Certainly there are other reasons why Web 2.0 is important and you're welcome to list them here, but I think this captures the central vision in a way that most anyone who is Web literate can grasp and access.
BTW, I will also use this moment to state that Web 2.0 is a terrible name for this new vision of Web-based people-centric software. Except that is for every other name we have at the moment (for example, like "next generation of the Web"). So I will continue to use Web 2.0 until something better comes along.
OK, don't agree? Please straighten me out. Why does Web 2.0 matter (or not) to you?
About RIA News Desk Ever since Google popularized a smarter, more responsive and interactive Web experience by using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) for its Google Maps & Gmail applications, SYS-CON's RIA News Desk has been covering every aspect of Rich Internet Applications and those creating and deploying them. If you have breaking RIA news, please send it to RIA@sys-con.com to share your product and company news coverage with AJAXWorld readers.
web2.wsj2.com wrote:
Trackback Added: The Web
2.0 Trinity: People,
Data, and Great Software;
I've still been absorbing
all the terrific
brainstorming that came
out of SPARK last
weekend. One of the key
bits that was agreed upon
by all almost immediately
was the utter centrality
of the user. I've been
big believe of this since
ear
web2.wsj2.com wrote:
Trackback Added: The Web
2.0 Trinity: People,
Data, and Great Software;
I've still been absorbing
all the terrific
brainstorming that came
out of SPARK last
weekend. One of the key
bits that was agreed upon
by all almost immediately
was the utter centrality
of the user. I've been
big believe of this since
ear
mustafap wrote: In the
good old days, the
techincal people designed
the web, and they built
it.
Now, it will probably
be the marketing and
commercial people who
will drive the design of
the next generation
'web'.
The thing that worries me
is that the people who
write viruses, worms,
spyware etc are *so* much
more technically savy
than the kind of people
who are going to drive
the next generation
systems. Those guys &
girls are going to have a
field day.
lmlloyd wrote: Oh, I had
really hoped that the one
upside of the bubble
bursting would be that
people would finally see
the leveraged
synergistics of
empowered,
paradigm-shifting,
buzzword groupthink, as
the load of con-man fast
talk it really is.
My rectum gets all in a
bunch at the very concept
that these
out-of-the-box, emergent
asshats will be once
again squaring off for
the mindshare of our
collective intelligence,
so that they can capture
eyeballs to secure a
solid ROI in their VC
funding!
You know, you would think
that after losing tons of
money in the last dotcom
bust, people would figure
out that if you have to
make up words to describe
your idea, it probably
isn't a very good one. It
is funny to me how the
most successful
businesses out of the
last buzzword feeding
frenzy had descriptions
like "You use it ...
drwho wrote: Yes my heads
starts to spin when I
read this stuff. My
bullshit detectors go off
too. But if someone with
bags of money decides to
start a dotcom 2.0
company in San Francisco
and pay me $120,000 per
year to go slap together
a few applications, I'll
pretend I believe.
I feel like I am reading
Wired or Mondo 2000 circa
1997 when I read about
Web 2.0.
Honestly, though, what
novel and useful things
have happened lately? The
only thing I can think of
is the potential that SVG
(vector graphics) in
mozilla offers. RSS,
blogs, myspace, and most
everything else I can
think of just isn't
exciting. VoIP has some
potential. Wifi has done
a lot, but I wonder if
the rate of improvement
in it will slacken. What
else is there?
I think I'll stay with
good old Internet (Web
1.3.55.89) for now,
thanks.
drwho wrote: Yes my heads
starts to spin when I
read this stuff. My
bullshit detectors go off
too. But if someone with
bags of money decides to
start a dotcom 2.0
company in San Francisco
and pay me $120,000 per
year to go slap together
a few applications, I'll
pretend I believe.
I feel like I am reading
Wired or Mondo 2000 circa
1997 when I read about
Web 2.0.
Honestly, though, what
novel and useful things
have happened lately? The
only thing I can think of
is the potential that SVG
(vector graphics) in
mozilla offers. RSS,
blogs, myspace, and most
everything else I can
think of just isn't
exciting. VoIP has some
potential. Wifi has done
a lot, but I wonder if
the rate of improvement
in it will slacken. What
else is there?
I think I'll stay with
good old Internet (Web
1.3.55.89) for now,
thanks.
cyberdanx wrote: Everyone
wants to be funding the
next Google and is going
to be suckered with this
Web 2.0.
Hopefully it won't happen
but this whole buzz
stinks of another bubble
beginning to expand
quickly, sucking the
whole industry into it
before finally exploding
with a lot of people
holding a turkey at the
end of it.
The technology and social
aspects have their uses,
but it's more
evolutionary than
revolutionary and should
be used as such.
peterdaly wrote: Web 1.0
- Documents
Web 1.5 - Documents + Web
Applications that pretend
to be documents
Web 2.0 - Documents + Web
applications acting like
the interactive
applications they are
Web applications are now
free from the "static
document" paradigm that
previous chained them
down. The web is no
longer pretending to be
static. That's not to say
Web 2.0 is "mature" by
any means, but the
groundwork as certainly
been laid.
BTW - There are a bunch
of concepts and methods
here that truly are
revolutionary. The more I
use it and understand
what it means, the more I
think Web 2.0 is not a
bad name, and may even be
justified.
-Pete
SYS-CON Italy News Desk
wrote: Dion Hinchcliffe's
SOA Blog: Five Reasons
Why Web 2.0 Matters. Most
of us know that the
technology industry and
the Web are often far out
ahead of the mainstream.
The fact is that the
general public is still
struggling with blogs and
wikis, much less full
blown architectures of
participation and
software as a service (to
name just two aspects of
Web 2.0). Not sure about
this? Try sampling a few
people at random and ask
them what a blog is. You
will probably be
surprised with the
answers. Nevertheless,
I'm extremely sanguine
about Web 2.0 and where
it's headed
(notwithstanding Bubble
2.0 type events like the
RSS Fund assembling a
massive $100 million
warchest and using it
with questionable
judgement.)
XML News Desk wrote: Dion
Hinchcliffe's SOA Blog:
Five Reasons Why Web 2.0
Matters. Most of us know
that the technology
industry and the Web are
often far out ahead of
the mainstream. The fact
is that the general
public is still
struggling with blogs and
wikis, much less full
blown architectures of
participation and
software as a service (to
name just two aspects of
Web 2.0). Not sure about
this? Try sampling a few
people at random and ask
them what a blog is. You
will probably be
surprised with the
answers. Nevertheless,
I'm extremely sanguine
about Web 2.0 and where
it's headed
(notwithstanding Bubble
2.0 type events like the
RSS Fund assembling a
massive $100 million
warchest and using it
with questionable
judgement.)
SOA Web Services Journal
News Desk wrote: Dion
Hinchcliffe's SOA Blog:
Five Reasons Why Web 2.0
Matters. Most of us know
that the technology
industry and the Web are
often far out ahead of
the mainstream. The fact
is that the general
public is still
struggling with blogs and
wikis, much less full
blown architectures of
participation and
software as a service (to
name just two aspects of
Web 2.0). Not sure about
this? Try sampling a few
people at random and ask
them what a blog is. You
will probably be
surprised with the
answers. Nevertheless,
I'm extremely sanguine
about Web 2.0 and where
it's headed
(notwithstanding Bubble
2.0 type events like the
RSS Fund assembling a
massive $100 million
warchest and using it
with questionable
judgement.)
Two of the biggest
launches in Rich Internet
Application history took
place in 2007/2008 when
Adobe launched AIR 1.0 in
February '08 and
Microsoft launched
Silverlight (September
'07). At the 6th
International AJAXWorld
RIA Conference & Expo in
October SYS-CON Events is
delighted to be
Virtualization has
quickly become a staple
new concept for
enterprise IT. At
SYS-CON's 3rd
International
Virtualization Conference
& Expo, held at the
Roosevelt Hotel in New
York City, June 23-24, we
had exceptional speakers
with high-quality use
cases not only of how
virtualization ma
Progress Software has
acquired Mindreef, a
provider of SOA service
validation and testing
tools. Mindreef will be
fully integrated into
Progress Software, and
will adopt the Progress
Software company name.
Progress expects to
retain most Mindreef
product names, however,
this will be re
E-mail is extremely easy
to adopt and use, and
lends itself very well to
certain types of
collaboration. When two
people are attempting to
collaborate
asynchronously, e-mail is
usually the best
solution. It's certainly
far less frustrating than
phone tag. But once more
people are invol
Elixir Technology
provides Integrated
Business Intelligence
with Elixir Repertoire -
a product for Dashboard,
Reporting, Data ETL and
Scheduling. Supporting
'Web 2.0' with RESTful
Web Services
architectural approach on
SOA, Elixir Repertoire
aims to power the new
generation enterprise
Legacy systems typically
contain the most critical
information in an
enterprise, and many
organizations have more
than one type of legacy
platform. LegaSuite
Integration is a
middleware tool to
simplify and accelerate
integration of all types
legacy data, business
logic and screens wit
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Two of the biggest
launches in Rich Internet
Application history took
place in 2007/2008 when
Adobe launched AIR 1.0 in
February '08 and
Microsoft launched
Silverlight (September
'07). At the 6th
International AJAXWorld
RIA Conference & Expo in
October SYS-CON Events is
delighted to be
