I had a chat with a friend last night about what “Web 2.0″ is.  He, a young marketing exec, thought that it was basically a programming term and that since he wasn’t hearing it that much anymore, it’s kinda a dead trend.  Oh no, I told him.  It’s much more than a marketing term for programming.

Basically I separated Web 2.0 into 3 areas: Design, Programming and Community.  I said that any one of the elements, done correctly, could qualify something as up for a Web 2.0 label, but a combination of the three ensured it.

• Design
• I am writing a creative brief today and started digging around to see if I could find some references for aesthetics I am partial to.  In doing so, I uncovered this nice writeup that summarizes some of the typical design elements found in a “web 2.0″ site.
• http://f6design.com/journal/2006/10/21/the-visual-design-of-web-20
•  Programming
• I told my friend, if you hear the words Ruby, Python, Drupal or AJAX used, you are dealing with a Web 2.0 site.  Of course, many other programming languages are used to achieve the kind of drag and drop feel of a Web 2.0 site, but these are the big ones lately.  These are also nice languages to see on a developer’s CV if you are hiring them for a job, as, even if they are not experts in any of the languages, they are forward thinking.
• Community
• How happy am I that the accidental career path that I wandered onto has become such a superstar in the industry.  
• Users are #1 in the Web 2.0 era.  You have to figure out a way to not only provide ways for your company to hear and communicate with your audience/users, but to actually listen and value their input.  Voting, focus groups, user enhances product design – the list is becoming infinite in the ways a company can immerse itself it it’s audience and become better for it. 

Let me know if I missed any major facet of Web 2.0.  I think most characteristics will fall in these buckets though.

Now that Web 2.0 has become normal, the fun begins.  Virtual worlds, user-centric design and strategies, MTV and video game raised kids becoming executives and generally blurred lines between companies and users are just the beginnings of a new era of business.  Web 2.0 isn’t dead, it was just the beginning. And I am excited for things to come.

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Tags: web2.0, design, mtv, video games, virtual worlds