Journey to the Center of (the World) Web 2.0

It’s been a while, okay ½ a year, since I last blogged. But I did say that I was going to keep this up, so here I am back at it.

These past six months I have been wandering inside Web 2.0 in an attempt to develop a better understanding of what exactly is going on there. I have made and posted nine YouTube videos. I have had a few hundred views. I have gathered three subscribers including Lilylulay, who I credit with "dragging" me into this "party". And I have even received some ‘hater’ comments. I feel just like a real YouTuber … just on a much smaller scale.

I have also Tweeted; 202 times to date. I will make it 203 when I post this blog entry. I have gathered 27 followers. Although I think some of them are bots. And others are people who I think were randomly assigned to me. Then there are the people at work. And the local gourmet pizza place. Yes, my followers may not include any Web 2.0 luminaries, but I am a Twitter-er none the less.

I have also participated in more bidirectional Web 2.0 activities, including BlogTV (who ReTweeted me!), Omegle, and UStream. And rather than simply watch, I have attempted to interact with the hosts of the streaming ‘shows’. I was even been moderately successful as Laci Green responded to some of my questions. Thanks Laci.

And, true to my nature, I have read some books, including Andrew Keen’s Cult of the Amateur, Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation and Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everyone.

So now, six months into my experience, I have come to some conclusions about what is going on inside Web 2.0.

First, it is not as profound as I had imagined. There is no great paradigm shift here. I think there are some subtle changes in the way in which we relate to each other, think of ourselves, and measure social norms. But it is just not that significant. In some ways, I am a little disappointed.

Second, I think that the concerns being voiced are as overrated as my assumptions about the significance of what is happening. Web 2.0 technology and its resultant online behaviours are not heralding some social catastrophe. They are simply the most recent manifestations of our ability to develop various means to communicate with each other.

And that, I think, is really what is happening. Web 2.0 provides many of us an ability to reach out across the planet and instantly communicate with almost anyone, anywhere. That’s all. We have been using technology to communicate with other people, over time and space, since we invented writing. Web 2.0 simply provides us the ability to communicate over greater distances, with many more people (most of whom we do not know), in real-time.

But in the end, we are still just doing what we started doing thousands of years ago. We are just reaching out and sharing what we have created, whether it is a poem, a skit, a joke, or an idea, with others.

And so here I am offering these ideas to anyone out there in the World Wide Web 2.0.

QG