Just when you thought the “what is web 2.0” debate had been mercifully quiet for a few months, Tim O’Reilly has had a go at a new, compact definition:
Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.
He boils the key themes down to: harnessing network effects (to make sites better as more people use them), the perpetual beta (release early and release often), small pieces loosely joined (harness re-use), Christensen’s law of the conservation of attractive profits (competitive advantage moves rather than goes away), and data as the new Intel Inside.
But personally, I like Eric Schmidt’s formulation best: “Don’t fight the internet.”