What is Web 2.0: The rules for creating successful products in the 21st century

Dion Hinchcliffe

Being everywhere
- mobile devices are one of the fastest growing segments of internet traffic
* provides many more opportunities to service customers and gain usage
- the best online products and services consist of complex constellations of hardware and software devices (iTunes, Sony CONNECT, Zune Marketplace)

Vertical or Horizontal
- the vertical model is a vendor controlled ecosystems above the level of a single device
- the horizontal model is an open, cooperating ecosystem that is under no central control

The model of the blogosphere
- 2-way platform
- user generated content
- software above the level of a single device
- the long tail content
- architecture of participation
- emergent structure

Rich User Experiences
- 1-upping the “page” metaphor
* the traditional web page model has great value but is limited in the experience it offers
* new models have emerged that provide a way to deliver apps as good as the desktop but entirely inside the browser via a URL
- delivered with techniques like Ajax or plug-ins such as flash or WPF/E
- looks and feels like desktop apps
* drag and drop, smooth morphing of the display, highly interactive. all without reloading
* and is better, can leverage the web platform
- significantly harder to develop and brings many challenges, but users respond very well to them

Challenges of Rich Internet Applications
- loss of page views
- content is non-crawlable, posing serious challenges with SEO
- few GUI conventions for RIAs
- the granular link structure of the web can be lost
- breaking the browser model

Harnessing Collective Intelligence
- software that gets smarter the more people use it

Collective intelligence = Google search engine

Common elements of success
- data-driven
- decentralized ecosystems
- leveraged the user to add value
- platforms, not applications
- focused on The Long Tail
- monetized successfully
- motive force: collective intelligence

The Long Tail
- the mass servicing of micromarkets
- only possible with automated customer self-service
- democratize of the tools of production
- democratize distribution
- connect supply and demand via automated customer self-service
- Examples (NetFlix = over 70,000 titles, Ebay = anyone can retail anything)

Next Generation Success
- Open source (sourceforge.org)
- user contributions wikipedia.org)
- peer production (digg.com)
- social interaction (myspace.com)
- two-way web in the large (blogs)

Blogs
- zero blogs in 2003, 57million today

Wikis
- web pages anyone can edit
- a version of every change made is saved
- very open, often the page can be edited by anyone