Reporter's Notebook: Based on an informal survey of Web 2.0 Conference participants, Web 2.0 is a powerful trend. I mean, a powerful technology. I mean, all about empowering people. Whatever.SAN FRANCISCO—As the Web 2.0 Conference comes to a close, I took an informal survey in the lobby of the Argent Hotel: What, in one sentence, is Web 2.0?
My original plan, inspired by a conversation with Joshua Schacter of del.icio.us (whose tongue-in-cheek response is below), was to compare and contrast the responses of developers and venture capitalists. The assumption was that developers and representatives from Web 2.0 companies would have a clear-eyed vision on Web 2.0, whereas venture capitalists would turn a bit glassy-eyed and mumble something about AJAX. Or browsers. Or mobile phones.
But, as it turned out, answers from all respondents were frank, pithy, and often insightful. To be fair, it's almost impossible, unless one has silver-tongued control over grammar and diction, to define a movement like Web 2.0 in one sentence. It's actually rather cruel to even ask.
Below, a sampling of some of the responses. Judge who's clued-in and who's chasing the bandwagon for yourself. And, in the spirit of Web 2.0, maybe someone would be so kind as to make a mashup definition with these quotes. With XML. And that AJAX stuff. On a wiki.
"To me, it's all about open data and service composition."
—John Marrells, Sxip
"What's Web 2.0? Buzz."
—Alex Algard, CarDomain Networks
"Web 2.0 is the two-way Web where content finds you."
—Ron Rasmussen, KnowNow
"People doing things together on the Web."
—Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Foundation
"Breaking the traditional mold of static content, be it images, video or text."
—Mark Chervesky, CNN Internet Ventures
"One is the social Web, and I also think it's the mobile Web, it's the broadband Web and it's a community Web."
—Dave Whorton, Tugboat Ventures
"Working on the Internet is the same as working on your desktop."
—Sarah Bresee, Outcast
"Web 2.0 is about platforms that other people can build on."
—Rajat Paharia, Bunchball
"Web 2.0 is features masquerading as companies."
—anonymous
"Web 2.0 is really about what Java was supposed to do."
—Nova Spivack, Radar Networks
"Expensive."
—Kevin Burton, Tailrank.com
"I think it's the next extension of 2004."
—Jason Shellen, Google
"I was going to do a blog post on this, on what Web 2.0 was, and the only thing that ever came up, that I've heard at the conference, is sentences that never finish themselves. All these companies are going to end up on the Google toolbar."
—Renee Blodgett, Blodgett Communications
"Web 2.0 is collaboration among people in a way that scales."
—Ward Cunningham, Cunningham and Cunningham
"It's made of people. It's not content."
—Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine
"It's the combination of advanced user interface technology with XML-based interoperability with applications."
—Scott Dietzen, Zimbra
"It's the exact same business models, only now we're ready for them."
—Jeanette Borzo, Dow Jones Venture Capital
"My definition is people taking precedence over data. People reclaiming data for their own use. Oops, that was two sentences."
—Ethan Kaplan, Warner Brothers Music
"True mass consumption of Web-based applications."
—Steve Mitgang, Yahoo!
"Individual to Individual."
—Frank Lin, Newbury Ventures
"It's a new set of Web-based services that usually or ought to include a user-defined community and a richer UI."
—Justin Label, Bessemer Ventures
"It's a moment in time when we stop and reflect what we've got and we reevaluate what our objectives are."
—Tony Ageh, BBC
"The interconnected Web."
—Andrew Anker, Six Apart
"Not boring."
—Lane Becker, Adaptive Path
"A gradient in the logo or fine diagonal lines in the header and CSS-styled form elements."
—Joshua Schacter, del.icio.us
Web Design 
