Anne Thomas Manes on Web 2.0

I am usually not a big fan of a lot of Web 2.0 statements however today I am sitting in the Burton Catalyst conference in Barcelona and am listening to Anne Thomas Manes describe the core tenets of Web 2.0. Anne is one of the strongest analysts in terms of technical skills and has the unique distinction of actually having written many of the standards and technologies for SOA and web services as opposed to merely studying them. Here is Anne on stage:



Anne has noted, as we wrote in the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Design Patterns book, that a pragmatic analysis of Web 2.0 will help people really understand what is going on. She also noted that things many people think ARE Web 2.0 (such as Rich Internet Applications, SOA, Mashups, and SaaS) are in fact only technologies or specific design patterns. Web 2.0 is an attitude and also a social movement towards the new model whereby users are a core part of the interaction (and architecture to some degree). The client-server model has truly evolved into a new model for Web 2.0 as shown here.

Anne noted that the process of engagement is also core. The old web was a web of searching and browsing whereas Web 2.0 is about participating. Tim O'Reilly's quote is perhaps the best here and by a strange coincidence, both Anne and I used it. Tim stated:

“Don't treat software as an artifact, but as a process of engagement with your users."

Both Anne and fellow Burtonite Chris Haddad also noted that Enterprise 2.0 is really an adoption of the core patterns of Web 2.0 by enterprises. In my opinion, this has accelerated greatly in the last eight weeks as large companies are struggling to adopt the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon.

I am looking forward to more on Web 2.0 from Burton.