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Web 2.0 - what's the business case?

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Subject:  Web 2.0 - what's the business case?
Author:   SteveJ:   view profile | all posts by this author | add to favourites
Date:   21:21:04 14 February 2006
 
I may be way off the mark here but I think  Web 2.0 is simply a media invention to describe how technology is being used differently to how it was a few years ago.

Blogs  are deemed  Web 2.0. That  always makes me scratch my head. Blogs are simply a combination of a simple database, server side code (like PHP or ASP) with the ability to parse RSS feeds. All of this has been around since before 2000.

AJAX (the scripting technology not the detergent) is deemed to be Web 2.0. All it is is clever javascript combined with XML and CSS. I know a guy whose programming career at Fujitsu started in 1999 playing with AJAX.

There's nothing new about Web 2.0 technology.

Its just companies like Google come along and make a very cool application like the Google Map system using AJAX and suddenly every man and his dog jump on the bandwagon and start playing with it, saying they're the latest Web 2.0 developers.

In my humble opinion there are some good applications of this so called new technology. As with all technology if you use it to solve a problem (like Google did) and it works, then it's possible that business models will follow.

AJAX for instance does seem a possible answer to the problem mobile web has.
I'm not brave enough to say it is "the answer", I just believe it might be one possible solution.

Basically the big problem with Mobile is the size of the consumer audience. To make it viable as a business a lot of operator/OS/browser compatibilities have to be overcome. There are currently 2 platforms used JM2E and XHTML to develop mobile apps and sites. With JM2E particularly in order to reach the consumer you need to port the development to many different operator networks, phones, OS/platforms, resolutions etc etc. It means developing a lot of code for a lot of apps for a lot of different systems and OS's. It means a lot of expense.

AJAX could potentially solve this problem. If a browser based platform was developed with AJAX it could potentially be used on any type of phone. So potentially a critical mass of people could download the same platform in AJAX meaning app developers have a standard to reach a wide audience. If enough people started to use AJAX then the network operator doesn't matter any more building apps for the OS become much easier and the audience much easier to reach, therefore the business model is better.

Of course there are a lot of ifs and buts there. But it potentially could be a "Web 2.0" application that could help the Mobile industry.

My view is simple with Web 2.0. If it solves a real business problem then it is viable. If it doesn't then it isn't.


 
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  • Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, Ashley , 9 Feb 12:22
    [Note: if you're new to 'Web 2.0' then read (http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228) Tim O'Reilly's 'What is Web 2.0' article] Despite my reservations about the (http://www.e-cons ...
    • Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, jbovard, 9 Feb 18:03
      Investment leading technology or technology leading investment? Web 2.0 seems to be the second one does it not? I think there is a case for this technology. But the point I ...
    • Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, ianjindal, 10 Feb 00:19
      Nice post.  You focus though upon the front-end and consumer-visible aspects of W2 - the 'behind the scenes' and mindset requirements are of equal import, imho. While I don't pr ...
      • RE: Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, Ashley , 10 Feb 09:43
        Hi Ian Some very good points there. I certainly think it is a refreshing and exciting way of thinking.  One question which *keeps* coming up from existing large organisations ...
        • RE: Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, textor, 10 Feb 14:50
          Whatever W2 is (W2 > W3 ? odd) I don't think it is about project management.  During the dot com bubble there was a lot of talk about breaking the mould on project management and p ...
        • RE: Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, ianjindal, 14 Feb 17:50
          Hm - two areas here: cross-team PM and what can be done in the 'pure online' domain using W2. In the first instance there's no escaping the fact that cross-silo working is neces ...
          • RE: Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, textor, 15 Feb 08:30
            This is such an important point. We got very excited about Ajax and scanned our existing web systems to see if you could sell our clients extra development based on Ajax.  Howev ...
    • Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, dcjarvis, 10 Feb 12:31
      Ashley We've had a brief look at using AJAX type interactivity. While the user experience benefits were potentially there (qualitatively speaking), the bigger (negative) impa ...
      • Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, nickharrison, 14 Feb 02:52
        From my point of view, web 2.0 is a 'mashup' (forgive yet another buzzword). It a collection of things: - simple sets of data/information - Meta data (information about infor ...
    • Web 2.0 - what's the business case?, SteveJ, 14 Feb 21:21
      I may be way off the mark here but I think  Web 2.0 is simply a media invention to describe how technology is being used differently to how it was a few years ago. Blogs  are de ...
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