The Real Definition of “Web 2.0″

Move to San Francisco. (Take frequent trips to New York City, though.) Learn Java or PHP or Perl. Buy UNIX servers from SUN and laptops from IBM. Create a useless web-based commerce site that sells objects like books or dog food. Your website must be some made-up word– like “joinks.com” or “gadzooks.com” or “floobiejoobie.com”. Or it must be something boring like “rocks.com” or “vegetables.com”. Catch lots of “eyeballs”, but no paying customers, go IPO, hire 200 college grads for rock-star salaries and stock options, “get big quick” and be first to market, invent some new thing that’s never been done and no one wants, hype your company in Wired and Fast Company, waste your VC money, never turn a profit, then dump all your Aeron chairs in the inevitable fire sale auction. Get rehired at our old pre-web 1.0 corporate job, watch your job go to India, quit and start working on Web 2.0 in your spare time.

Web 2.0:

Move to Chicago. (Take frequent trips to Portland, Oregon, though.) Learn JavaScript or Ruby or Python. Buy Linux servers from Dell and laptops from Apple. Create a useful web-based application that does one tiny thing well– like creating a text file or a bunch of linked text files. Your website must fit the following form: “<integer><plural-noun>.com”. Catch lots of eyeballs and some dollars (at least with ad revenue), never go IPO, hire your college friends for coffee shop wages and actual stock (no options), “get real” and be the last to market, reinvent some old thing that everyone wants, hype your company on your blog or podcast or screencast (or get others to do it for you… or all of the above), save your “angel” money, make a profit from day zero, buy your chairs at IKEA, dump all your IP in the inevitable sellout to a Web 1.0 company. Quit and start working on Web 3.0 - Brain Implant Edition.

Original link: http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/?p=14

(Bad news for my new Thinkpad...I should've brought a Powerbook /cry...)