I love the web. I love great web apps. I love making them. And I love using them.
I’ve got a lot invested in the “sematic web,” open source philosophy (and practice!), APIs, the late-90s dictum that “information wants to be free,” and still think “What is Web 2.0” is a great article.
We’ve been drinking the punch since the rise of the second bubble - and who wouldn’t drop by the open bar? It’s been damn good. But things are starting to change.
Remembering The Dream
I remember reading TIME Magazine’s 2006 “Person of the Year” article (”You”) with rapt attention:
“But look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before…
It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.”
I remember reading TechCrunch for the first time and checking out all the new startups that were cropping up. I’d read up on the latest mashups, spend hours playing with new APIs, and find ways to shoehorn unnecessary products into my workflow.
Flickr was really cool, YouTube was revolutionary, Google was cranking out new products developed in-house, and Facebook was the ultimate un-MySpace that spooked the giant from a Harvard dorm.
From “Mash” to “Mush”
But things have cooled down in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »
