.: rant on

So the NYT is running this story about blogging and name recognition and I’d spend the time saying that this article is yet another last gasp of the MSM trying to maintain relevance (or at least trying to minimize the relevance of newer media) when I got to this line.

“I would say that’s a pretty significant blogometric pressure,” said David L. Sifry, the chief executive of Technorati.

WTF? Blogometric pressure?!?!?! Did Sifry say that with a straight face? The “blogosphere” has it own pressure system?

I can’t take this anymore…everyone, blogging is great, endlessly debating what is and what isn’t Web 2.0, prognosticating the next big tagging site is the activity du jour…and why?

Because we’ve officially hit the stage where we feel OBLIGATED to write something, anything.

I hope I never, ever hear or see the phrase blogometric pressure ever again and do yourselves and others a favor. Don’t ever use that phrase yourself, and smack anyone who you catch.

.: rant off

As is typical when Adam and I get going, we ran out of time to address all of the questions but we captured them and promised to try to quickly put together some responses. What follows below in a very quick and dirty fashion are the questions and our quick responses.

1) What will stick with Web 2.0 over the next 6 months? 3 years? What�??s next?

We believe that although some of the heat associated with the Web 2.0 conversation may die down over the next several months, the innovation and trends that we highlighted in the presentation are here to stay. The Social Web will continue to grow in participation. Tools for sharing and dialogue will continue to become easier to use. Smart companies will make their data portable and interoperable. User experiences will continue to become richer and more tools will be created that transform information into knowledge.

All of this is all very exciting, in and of itself, but the one place where it will become the most visible will be where the Web 2.0 experience really breaks free from the browser and becomes an integral part of our everyday experience like instant messaging or email has become over the past 10 years.

There is a lot of smart money at the moment being spent by the big players to purchase companies and online social spaces. Given all of our learnings from the last go around, we believe that this indicates something more than an �??irrational exuberance�?? related to the idea behind Web 2.0.

Specific to �??What�?? will stick over the next period of time:

�?� Blogging is here to stay and its influence on product/technology development, media, politics, etc. will continue to grow.
�?� The perpetual beta will continue to be adopted as the best practice in developing applications. At its core, a perpetual beta approach is about moving from user-centered design to user-driven design.
�?� The ability to create trust will become a critical success factor for organizations as competition becomes more and more intense.

2) How is Web 2.0 applicable to the service industry? How does this translate to other industries?

As with other industries, Web 2.0 will have (is having) significant impact on the services industry. One foreseeable impact will be the sharing of information related to customer experiences �?? think eBay�??s reputation management or Amazon�??s user reviews related to the insurance, legal services and/or other services industries.

One of example where this is already beginning is the �??MechanXFiles�?? on NPR�??s Car Talk web site. On this site, users can submit or review comments for mechanics in their local area. This site and these recommendations provide useful information that can drive (no pun intended) consumer choice. To take it to another step, think of this type of customer feedback then �??mashed-up�?? with Google Maps providing instant location of highly rated mechanics.

Additionally, painting with a broad brush, some possible uses for Social Computing within service industries could be:

1. Recreation: Leveraging user communities to review, rate and tag �??destinations�?? or activities in a given geo-location or subject matter field. i.e. leveraging Bostonians to write up concert reviews or events around town. (See upcoming.org as opposed to boston.citysearch.com).

2. Healthcare: Allowing people with similar conditions to connect, share and discuss various treatment options to expand patient knowledge as well as possibly uncovering new treatment possibilities due to information being transformed into knowledge by connecting hundreds or thousands of disparate data points. This could likely result in �??new�?? medical knowledge being created based on this rich knowledge source. This is the same principle that drives Wikipedia.

An interesting side note in response to this question is Aetna�??s recent decision to publish the prices that it has negotiated with Cincinnati health-care providers for hundreds of services. This decision was highlighted in many news outlets and will serve to drive additional transparency in the healthcare marketplace.

One place to look at how Web 2.0 will impact any industry is to ask the question, �??Where is there a lack of transparency?�?? Chances are that these are the places where social computing will eventually have an impact.

3) How will this be incorporated within the wireless industry? Why has this not really taken hold there?

The wireless industry is notorious for being customer unfriendly. In our minds, it�??s really only going to take one wireless company to really get it and really try to serve the consumer to drive significant change. Right now, it�??s really how the wireless industry chooses to leverage what is already present within the industry itself. More people are constantly connected by cell phone than by PC. In the United States alone, over 190 million people used cell phones as of June 2005 [Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association], compared with 128 million people using the internet [Pew Internet & American Life Project].

But if they choose not to serve the customer, then external forces will drive them to do so. In the very near future, the wireless industry is going to have to compete with VoIP providers like Skype, Google, AOL and Yahoo! With more cities attempting to network the public with free Wi-Fi connections, it will only be a matter of time before the current generation of handsets start to look old and dated.

The next generation of Wi-Fi enabled handsets will be able to take advantage of greater processing speed and faster data networking, so now the cell phone isn�??t just a phone anymore. It�??s a mobile internet device that can take/make calls, take and send photos and use web services.

The next logical leap could be combining web surfing (Google Maps), photo-taking and uploading (Flickr, Moblogs) and social networking (LinkedIn, Dodgeball) to provide instant location of friends and family, community-vetted places to visit or events to attend. Think of it as tagging for the real-world. Being able to search on anything you see, just by taking a picture of it.

The wireless industry should be thinking about how to create a space that their customers are not locked into but is so useful and worthwhile that they wouldn�??t want to use anything else. A wireless carrier�??s customer-based network is the most valuable asset it has.
Honestly, we are not sure why it has not taken hold, but it seems like a significant opportunity for a first mover.

4) What is population of social networking, what is population of views being taken into account? Who blogs? Is it a majority? Who will blog?

We don�??t have figures on the total population of social networking, but we would bet that it is growing and will continue to grow. (Note: According to the LinkedIn home page, there are over 3.8 million members of that particular social networking space.) Of note in this space is News Corp.�??s July 2005 $580M purchase of Intermix Media, provider of MySpace.com.

Another figure estimating the size of the Social Web is the growth of weblogs. According to a figures published by David Sifry of Technorati.com, as of August 2005, there were over 14.2 million weblogs. This is growing at a rate of 55 thousand additional weblogs being created each day (which has increased from the 30 to 40 thousand weblogs being created each day when measured earlier this year). Based on their data, Technorati estimates that the blogosphere is doubling in size once every five and a half months.

Based on the sheer number of weblogs that are active (approximate 55% of the number above) and that are being created each day, we believe that it is probably safe to say that the blogosphere represents at least a somewhat good mirror of the diversity of views in the general population �?? at least in those where the technological infrastructure provides decent access to the Internet.

Note: Both Forrester and Pew Internet have published studies which inlcude some information on the demographics of the blogosphere. See Below.

Pew Internet & American Life Study: Technology and Media Use

Forrester�??s Consumer Technographics® 2005 North American Benchmark Study

We believe that as tools continue to improve, more people will continue to blog, but think it is fair to say that not everyone will.

5) Do B2Bs really use these things? How can they be commercialized? How can you monetize? How can you show ROI to your boss? How can I convince an executive to do this?

In our experience developing web experiences and applications, we have found B2B to be a misnomer. Other than maybe a more complex workflow element, B2B and B2C experiences share more than they differ. Moreover, as we stated, we believe that user expectations are being defined outside of the tools and experiences that involve the daily conduct of business. In our current work, we are finding that �??B2B�?? users are demanding consumer-like experiences. This is being driven by the fact that most users are starting each browser session at one of the major �??start portals�?? (Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, Google) and these players have actively embraced or kick-started Web 2.0 concepts.

As for whether or not business users are �??really [using] these things,�?? well a number of companies with whom we work have expressed interest in the tools and their application to support their businesses. We believe that there are significant applications of these concepts and tools above and beyond just simple marketing (which is also an application). Specific applications depend on what is right for you and your customers and other stakeholders.

As for commercializing and monetizing, it really depends on your business model. If you develop products, one application is to use these tools to bring your customers into your product development process. Another idea is to find applications that allow your customers to share applications and best practices related to your offerings with each other. If you want to promote your brand, then maybe a desktop widget makes sense.

Calculating an accurate ROI is always tricky thing. Quite frankly, we don�??t know a magical formula for applying a realistic ROI to the application of Web 2.0 concepts or technologies. However, if you just want to get a feel for it and what the return might be on a blog or a forum, the initial investment cost is quite low.

As for convincing an executive to do this, there are plenty examples of well-known companies who are blogging or using forums to create or participate in social spaces to support their businesses. Some of the more well-known examples include GM, Macromedia, Tivo and Proctor & Gamble.

6) Social Computing seems time-consuming. Where will people find time to do social computing and how many people will really want to engage if it is time consuming?

In actuality Social Computing saves time instead of consuming it. Here are some examples how:

1. Publishing and Communications: As we�??ve talked about, machine-to-machine communication is now near-automatic. To create, update and cross-link web pages is a 30 second �?? 5 minute process with no coding skills necessary. In the past, a coder was necessary to take content written elsewhere so that it could be placed on the web. Now if an individual or business wants to publish to a broad audience, there are very few technical constraints to get in the way. Tools that are allowing this to happen include blogs, wikis, syndicated feeds, as well as specialized tools such as Backpack, Writely and Flickr. The ability to publish has gone from a multi-person, multi-day effort to a few clicks of the mouse.

2. Information Retrieval: With tagging and social bookmarking (see del.icio.us, Furl, Blinklist, Spurl and Digg) there are interesting side-effects that keep revealing themselves as more users adopt the functionality. It may seem like �??more effort�?? to tag a web page but in reality it takes about an extra 5-10 seconds to type in �??Web 2.0, social computing, tagging�?? into a field. The payback on this is infinitely greater than hitting Ctrl-D and losing a ill-named page in a sea of local bookmarks.

a. First, now your bookmarks are stored on a server that is available from any internet-connected PC, regardless of your physical location or whether or not you have your computer with you.

b. Because the tagging services are socially networked, your bookmarks are available to everyone else and vice versa. If you find something good enough to save for later, there�??s a good chance that other people will find value in that information as well. Now the collective body of bookmarks is a community-vetted collection of rich content that is much more focused and useful than a tradition search query. And all of this saves people time when it comes to finding exactly what they need, when they need it.

3. A good blend of social computing approaches makes using these solutions a �??fun�?? experience. Google Maps is more than just away-finder, it�??s a tool to help find what will make your life better or easier. Flickr is far more than a photo posting site it makes a meaningful experience out of sharing with others. The point being, when something is a pleasure to use, people will always make time to use it.

7) How do I deal with the impedance match problems? �?? How do you get data from wikis to spreadsheets and back again?

We agree that there are impedance match problems at the moment. (We also like the way this is described!) We think that is a problem with the current set of tools that should be resolved in the near future.

Even now there are a handful of Ajax office suites out there that provide networked Word, Excel and Powerpoint functionality. Click here for a good round-up.

Additionally, Microsoft announced that they will be doing away with the classic �??.doc�??, �??.xls�?? and �??.ppt�?? file formats in the next release of Office and will be converting everything to �??.xml�?? so your data transportability issues should fade out almost completely within a year or so.

Once again, we want to thank MITX (and especially Sara) on having us to present at the CEO Roundtable Series and we look forward to continued discussion on all of the topics above.

It’s also been renamed as Google Local as the local results are now being displayed in the detail bubbles as another tab.

I also noticed that a user can set a “start point” for the maps as long as they have a Google account…I’m sure how new this is but I just noticed it today.

As this our inaugural post, in (what you�??ll find over time) keeping with Monkey Style, we figured that we�??d go ahead and just lob the grenade right into the middle of the room and let it grow and evolve from there. That�??s what this is all about isn�??t it?

We’re eating our own Web 2.0 dog food here so this will seem familiar in spots since we�??re mashing up, collaborating and adding as we go along.

The Appetizer
In a twist on Charlene Li�??s views, we must all realize, as pundits, creators and experts that we are no longer in control of what�??s occurring right now. Web 2.0 is being driven by the users, not by consultants, developers or writers. It is the collective community that is driving what is desired, what is enhanced, what is fueling this global debate on what exactly Web 2.0 really is.

To acknowledge this is the first step to making a cohesive vision possible. Without putting people at the forefront of this discussion, the Web 2.0 debate will continue to be a variant of the age old �??Mac vs. PC�?? argument that seems to have thankfully finally lost some steam.

The Grenade
Currently, the Tim O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Meme Map is the most circulated attempt at a cohesive picture of what Web 2.0 is. As it�??s circulated, the responses have been across the spectrum from �??Too complex�?? to �??Not complex enough.�??

Leveraging Adam�??s information design skills, we attempted to make our own version of the meme map and boil it down to the core essentials. It should be noted that to get here, there were 3 other attempts. The first map needed to be printed on a wide-scale plotter and took up an entire wall. The second spanned five 8.5�?? x 11�?? pieces of paper and the third could fit onto a single piece of paper.

Okay, so let�??s explain�?�

Embracing the Monkeys: People as Computing Power
We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. What happens when all the monkeys are networked together in an endlessly collaborative virtuous circle? As it turns out�?�hey, hey, we�??re the monkeys.

• Technology is now at the point where leveraging Crowd Wisdom is not only a possibility, but it is happening right now through blogs, RSS, wikis, social networks, etc.
• Connecting people to people is now effortless through near-autonomous machine-to-machine communication
• As more people participate, the tools become more powerful, content becomes richer and user satisfaction increased.
• This occurrence is self-feeding and contributes to the Long Tail theory.
• As this cycle repeats itself, the system gains the fury of its own momentum and the global community becomes the single greatest computing power to date.

In other words, when you have many individuals and/or groups working on solving many little problems 24/7, innovations come on a daily basis. As these incremental innovations are adopted, mutated and re-released into the wild there are regular quantum leaps forward every two to six months when the smaller pieces are loosely joined in a novel way. One just has to look to Google Maps, Ajax (as a concept) or Flickr to see evidence of this. Tagging is probably the best example of concrete social computing output.

The net of this is that there isn�??t a corporation, entity or individual that has enough money or offshoring capability to compete with that kind of horsepower. From a business perspective, the first companies to recognize and embrace this will vault so far ahead of their competition, the rest of the field will have no choice but to follow.

From an individual perspective, in a fully realized Web 2.0 environment, everyone will be able to find what they need, complete their desired tasks and receive value from all of their web transactions.

In our eyes, people as computing power is the single most important aspect to what Web 2.0 really is at its essence. We�??ve been waiting for these many months for someone to come out and state this plainly�?�and while some have danced right up to it, it hasn�??t been said yet. So there, we�??ve said it and now it�??s out there.

As we say, �??Drink the kool-aid or drown in it.�??

Good User Experience and Usefulness
On February 8th, 2005 many people sat down at their computers and found emails and news articles announcing that Google had released a map site. Upon hearing the news, the collective reaction was, �??Really? Why? Yet another map site? How boring.�?? 30 seconds later, after a curious visit to Google Maps, most reactions were more like this, �??Whoa. Why can�??t all websites be like this? This is exactly the way all websites should be.�??

Much like its cousin, Gmail, it didn�??t take long for Google Maps to rapidly find a vocal and enthusiastic user base.

Users have become so enamored with Google Maps that various fan sites (of a sort) emerged overnight. Why is this? Other map sites such as MapQuest and MapBlast (now MSN Maps & Directions) have been around for years, but never engendered fan sites.

Google Maps is highly responsive, quick-loading and highly interactive. You can click and drag a map in real-time. It asks you if you want directions after you look up an address and then plots those directions in the blink of an eye. In short, Google Maps provides a user experience that performs more like a desktop application than a typical vanilla web site.

As cool as that is (and don�??t get us wrong �?? because it is), the real brilliance of Google Maps is not that it performs like a desktop application, but how it transforms the user experience of a traditional map site into a that of a knowledge tool.

A traditional map site will give you directions, but Google Maps�?�well, if you’re hungry, type �??Chinese restaurants, Boston MA�?? into it and it plots nearby restaurants. Two more clicks and some minimal data entry you get directions and are on your way to dinner.

The user excitement around Google Maps had nothing to do with the development platform, the coding language or the back-end databases. Sure, the interface and performance were impressive, but Google Maps transforms the traditional map site into something completely different, a knowledge tool that�??s useful and provides continual value to it users.

In our eyes, user experience is everything a user sees, feels, hears, and touches as it relates to the solution that is being provided. Additionally, it�??s impossible for a solution to be without a user experience. If UX is neglected, ignored or slapped on as an afterthought, users will likely stay away from whatever brilliance is being hidden underneath. If UX is crafted and integrated from a solution�??s inception, users will become loyal to the point of zealotry.

Sure we could talk about Ajax and RIAs here in this spot as well, but we�??re not going to. Honestly, the RIA space is simply a �??flavor of the month club�?? right now. There�??s as much zealotry around Ajax vs. Flex vs. something else as there is in the Web 2.0 arena and like we alluded to earlier, this doesn�??t do anything to move the ball forward. Both approaches are intriguing, both have pros and cons and at the end of the day, who knows what UI approach will come along tomorrow.

What�??s important is that a Web 2.0 user experience and the value or usefulness it provides is delivered by the most effective means possible�?�and that usually isn�??t an either/or choice. More often than not, blending the right tools, techniques and approaches is what delivers. Look at Flickr for a good example of HTML, Ajax, Flash, feeds, etc. as a compelling mixture of functionality that simply delivers what people want instead of fading, sliding, zipping, moving websites for the sake of �??neatness.�??

Be Here Now :: Current Events
Completely outside of the tech nature of Web 2.0, current events have a profound impact on mainstream awareness and adoption of Web 2.0, even if most people will never look at all these new tools and capabilities as Web 2.0.

After the July 2005 London subway bombings, Wikipedia emerged as the most accurate and complete account of everything that had occurred. Why Wikipedia and not the MSM? Because people as computing power and the network were able to instantly, continually and collaboratively create the collective entry that the rest of the world could access.

Coverage of and the outpouring of relief for Hurricane Katrina victims was unprecedented across the web and the foundations of Web 2.0 played a very large part in a near instantaneous response on a scale previously unseen. Through blogs, wikis, feeds and self-serve advertising, the relief network was established overnight. It was the pre-established Web 2.0 toolset that allowed the true Web 2.0 entity to respond with such force and timeliness.

Also recollect Trent Lott, Dan Rather and Jeff Gannon�??s stories to underscore how the power has shifted to the people.

Plate Tectonics :: Conceptual Shifts in Thinking
The conceptual shifts in our collective thinking has been what�??s driving this global dialog forward for the past year, Rather than reinvent the wheel, this is a bullet list summary view of all the holistic picture as we all see it instead of taking the �??either/or�?? approach, We prefer to look at these conceptual shifts holistically. Each are true, yet to look at them singularly doesn�??t tell the whole story. As a composite, this is what we feel defines Web 2.0. (credit to the Web 2.0 Meme Map for the source material)

So for the uninitiated and/or those who�??d like to see these all in one place here you go.

• Web 2.0 is an attitude, not a technology
• Small pieces loosely joined
• Perpetual beta
• Remix Culture
• User behavior is not predetermined
• Granular Addressability of Content
• Trust your users
• The Long Tail
• Products, Services and Concepts that get better the more people use them
• Hackability
• People will be the computing power that is leveraged most.

Nuts and Bolts :: Technology and Infrastructure
We feel obligated to place this in here because it is what make the engine go, but at the end of the day, there are plenty of blogs and resources out there that profile the technology in depth and we�??ll leave that to them.

Wrapping this up

• Data will continue to be more interoperable and highly portable. (See XML/RSS/Atom, web services, trackback, APIs, etc.)
• User experience becomes highly-personalized both in terms of what�??s expected from an interaction model as well as the knowledge that is delivered. (See RSS, search, alerts, filters, tags, the Long Tail, Greasemonkey, etc.)
• The Web finally breaks free from the browser. (See Widgets, Web-enabled desktop-like applications, Mobile applications, etc.)
• The locus of the web continues to shift towards the trends in social computing. (See blogs, podcasts, social computing, etc.)
• Information technology evolves into Knowledge Technology
• Web 2.0 is/becomes the societal shift that propels us from the Information Age to the Knowledge Age

As Dennis Miller says, �??That�??s just our opinion, we could be wrong�?��??

Thanks for coming and reading�?�of course we welcome any and all comments, trackbacks, links, bookmarks, etc. Keep your eye on the site, we promise it will keep on going as long as people keep visiting.

The monkeys would like to point out that this post was written as a part of Blogoposium1 which was conceived and executed by Ken Yarmosh of Technosight. We wish to thank him and congratulate him on what we think was an excellent idea and event.