What is Web 2.0?

 

Not all new technologies are "Web 2.0", but Web 2.0 is all about new collaborating online.  Collaboration is obviously central to successful project management.   Get your team working together more effectively and your project will run more efficiently.  

The best definition of Web 2.0 is O'Reilly's article "What is Web 2.0?"  He talks about harnessing collective intelligence, the wisdom of crowds, lightweight programming  models, and software above the level of the single device.

From a project perspective:
- collective intelligence can help solve problems quickly
- the wisdom of crowds can lead to better decision-making
- lightweight programming models mean that users can help prototype or even help build applications
- software above the level of a single device may mean there are better ways of communicating and accessing project data.

None of these are silver bullets, but the goal of this blog is to expose the potential of these new approaches and technologies and let you decide for yourself.

O'Reilly also talks about the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:

- Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability 
- Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them 
- Trusting users as co-developers 
- Harnessing collective intelligence 
- Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service 
- Software above the level of a single device 
- Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models 

These competencies have implications for internal IT organizations as well as business as a whole.  Some of them examined in an EarlyStage VC article, The Coming Wave of Enterprise 2.0.