While attending UTR something interesting occurred to me.
Web 2.0 concepts have given birth to lot of necessary fragmentation. One vendor focused on widgets. Another focused on secured feeds. Another on API mash-up management. They are all aiming to create and tap new opportunities to communicate over the web. In the Web 1.0 or 1.5 world, there were lots of old paradigms from the enterprise days. You had to work how the company was used to you working.
Today things are getting more specialized. You have developer communities, you have social communities, business communities, etc. And you have the opportunity to truly have it your way. And if you can do your work and plug back into the main arteries of business when you need to, no one can say that their regiment is any better than yours.
It's very exciting because like the need to extend beyond the primordial ooze, web companies are pushing a lot of boundaries organizationally and technically. And integration isn't an option, it's a way of driving greater opportunity. It's also a way to let you migrate quickly to the next new solution.
And I'm starting to question whether Web 2.0 is actually a real thing (i.e. some period of human achievement and evolution) or if it's improperly named. Maybe this moment is really about when the Web stopped being about technology and started being a seamless sixth element (with apologies to water, air, earth, fire, and metal) that infuses our personal and professional lives. That's the way it feels from here.
