Fortune has interesting perspective on the recent Web 2.0 meeting. Adam Lashinsky write:
In fact, I haven’t seen an event as frenzied, as exclusive – oh, let’s just say it – as devoid of real news or fresh insight as the famous Robertson Stephens technology conference in early 2000. Investors literally hung from the nooks and crannies in the walls at that bubbly get-together, held a few months before the market peaked. At the summit last week, there was a giddy hunger in the eyes of executives from small and big companies alike, all wanting a piece of the action.
He captures the essence of the Web 2.0 very well in
Web 2.0, by the way, refers to the companies generally founded after the last crash that use a series of software tools that allow individuals to manipulate what’s on their screen.
The Web’s first iteration entailed people going to Web sites, like Yahoo, to see what was there. Second-generation sites, like YouTube and MySpace, let users contribute their own information and then change it. That’s the revolution in a nutshell.
So user generated content (UGC) is great, but there is limitation to it. And the idea of building communities is definitely deeper than just purring a site with an environment for UGC.
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