Snake Oil 2.0

It seems like everything in business currently has "2.0" tacked to the end of it. It reminds me of 2000 when every project going had an "e-" prefix or @ carelessly replacing every "a" in it's name. It smells of bandwagons and buzzwords.

It's funny because the web has some genuinely novel things going on. Web 2.0, as has been written many times elsewhere is about bringing "community" and simple publishing (the web becomes bi-directional) to the absolute masses, becoming, like facebook has, as ubiquitous as email virtually overnight. But like blogging before it, once the concept reaches the boardroom with some over-eager executive touting it's commerical potential, the sheer fragility of it is clear. Community works when it is out in the wilds of the internet, unguided by commerical principles but falls apart quickly like a quantum-measurement when it is controlled by an advertising force.

The rush to 2.0 everything is like dot-com boom two. And like that boom there will be some winners and there will be many losers.