Web 2.0

I've heard the term "Web 2.0" a lot recently, but there isn't a lot of agreement of what it means exactly. Tim O'Reilly provides one description.

Most people seem to think that it means a web site will access a combination of services provided by different providers (web services, RSS feeds - the exact technology does not matter), and apply a presentation provided by someone else, rather than being one complete entity written by one organisation. An organisation that specialises in a narrow area is more likely to do this well than a general web site company.

However, if more organisations are involved, this will cause difficulties, both politically, where everyone has to work in the interests of the organisation they work for, not the web site as a whole, and technically, where everyone is used to different technologies and ways of using them, and is relunctant to adapt. Industry standards, such as RSS will reduce technical difficulties, but there will always be some, and the political difficulties will remain.

This will make any Web 2.0 development a risky strategy, unless you can either develop a good relationship with the service provider where all work towards common goals, or you can have interchangable service providers, where if one doesn't work out you can change to another at minimal cost.