In Defense of Web 2.0

Dave Kellogg has a nice post entitled “Web 2.Over?” in which he eloquently reviews the various reasons that most web 2.0 startups are “in for a reality check”.

But what I liked most about the post was his defense of the spirit of web 2.0:

While a swarm of eyeball-catching, oddly-named, twenty-something-led startups may get obliterated — outside venture circles at least — that wasn’t the point of web 2.0. To me, web 2.0 was, is, and remains an important collection of concepts that will endure:

• A read/write web, where we can participate, update, annotate, comment, etc.
• A social web, where there is awareness of relationships that can be leveraged appropriately
• User-generated content, which is here to stay and always has been (think: radio call-in shows, Kids Say the Darndest Things, or America’s Funniest Home Videos)
• The use of the web for communication and entertainment. People are natural communicators. We will always adapt our tools to that fundamental need.
• A personalized web, that understands what we like and how we like to get it

Amen! The good news is that there is no turning back on this vision of a more interactive online medium. Today it’s blogs and tweets; tomorrow it may be something we haven’t even imagined. But, now that an increasing number of us fancy ourselves as publishers and communicators, I don’t see us giving up that power without a fight.