5 January, 2006 - 3:03pm

An excellent overview of what Web 2.0 is, and is not, was published by Peter Wilson of the Vancouver Sun earlier this week in "The Future May Be Now: The Debate Over Whether Web 2.0 is the Next Big Thing in How We Conduct Our Online Lives". The story includes interviews with Sxip's Founder & CEO, Dick Hardt, as well as VC Paul Kedrosky.

The article notes that although Web 2.0 likely won't give us world peace, it is undeniably full of promise with the ability "to harness the collective online mindmeld to create a better richer Web experience". We agree and believe that the Web 2.0 label is a good metaphor for the more open, richer and interactive experience now available on the internet. Another good summary of the various perspectives espoused on the subject, both for and against whether Web 2.0 "really exists", is on the Corante blog posted by Stowe Boyd last week. And of course there's the in-depth white paper written by Tim O'Reilly, which we blogged about last fall.