New Years, Web 2.0 and Business Social Networking

Wishing all a belated Happy New Year and welcome back to BoomSpress Times. We've finally succeeded in standardizing all formats, making navigation easier for you and updating easier for us.

The New Years well under way, ushering in constant changes in the Web. Don't think I'll ever stop feeling like a newbie. Every time I open email or research an issue there's a new acronym for a new technology; social sites and multiplying like guppies. In any case, here's my take on the current situation.

The Web is well out of infancy now. It's at least middle age, long past the excitement of its adolescence. Since Google's "Slap", the crackdown on spam blogs and sites whose only purpose was to generate ad revenue, the Web must now function as a serious medium. Whether one needs to sell, shop, research or just hang out and rap with friends, we all want readily accessible information without a lot of junk and confusion.

Enter Web 2.0. What the heck is it? Well, after a few searches, the best definition that I've seen is "participatory architecture". Makes a lot of sense when you think about it. The medium is now so vast and ever-changing, people (especially marketers) need to be able to exchange information, that is, participate actively in the building of their goals. The real irony in all of this is the fact that in spite of all of the High Tech that we've developed in the past couple of decades, we're learning more and more by osmosis, constantly absorbing strategies and knowledge from millions of virtual contacts. Will wonders ever cease?

Paula Gaon