Sitting on a rock at the beach today...
Riders on the storm | Riders on the storm | Into this house were born | Into this world were thrown | Like a dog without a bone | An actor out on loan | Riders on the storm
"Too many companies are targeting an audience of 53,651."
Josh Kopelman | 53,651
As someone who takes pictures of surfers and crows (this one flew by this morning) with a digital camera, I understand the attraction of futile, unrealistic, and technically impossible pursuits. As far as action photography is concerned, the time delay between focusing and making the picture is always going to screw up a good shot so, to get a reasonable snap, you have to take hundreds.
Or thousands. So what? I have the time...
So too, it seems, do millions of others.
Earlier today, while sitting on a rock taking pictures of surfers riding waves, it struck me I know nothing (or very little) of Web 2.0. As far as I know, Google's Web 2.0. It has everything I need. So what the fuck is this thing? What's the buzz? Why are so many people I know making such a noise about it?
Arriving home, I Googled the term and, naturally, landed up at Wikipedia. The Web's indeed a wonderful tool for those of us with access to it.
At the outset, Wikipedia tells me:
Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a supposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. O'Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences and since 2004 it has become a popular (though ill-defined and often criticized) buzzword amongst certain technical and marketing communities.I certainly didn't know the origin of the term, and so learnt something right off. But I guess that's the reason we populate Wikipedia, eh?
...I started pondering the sanity...
Theres a killer on the road | His brain is squirmin like a toad | Take a long holiday | Let your children play | If ya give this man a ride | Sweet memory will die | Killer on the road, yeah
Wikipedia's article is a lengthy and, I guess, comprehensive rundown on Web 2.0. Go read it. Essentially, it tells me I wasn't far off the mark. Web 2.0 appears to be a Google on Steroids, a Web-based social-and-every-other-from-of-human-interaction platform exploited and added to by a global, networked user base.
Kinda like what we wish we had now, I thought.
...of those promoting Web 2.0.
A long time ago, Niek Hockx said of blogging and other Web media — this is not a direct quotation: "Blogging is another way to put up stuff on the Web."
Bang on. And Wikipedia's entry — and TechCrunch — seems to echo that basic premise when explaining what (or what does not) constitutes Web 2.0.
Web 2.0's a whole lot of ways to put up stuff on the Web.
Nothing else.
The rest is hype. And the hype is dangerous. We are not looking at the wired world of the future. Anybody believing we are has been suckered by New Age Tech++. Web 2.0, as it's touted by small companies trying to make names for themselves and fat profits for their owners, is a non-starter. It will not fly.
Why? If you need me to explain that one, you shouldn't mention the term Web 2.0. You should drag yourself away from your PC and go take a look at the world around you. Should your mind not already have fried on your motherboard, you might give yourself an inkling as to why this is so.
Besides allowing educated, predominantly North American moneyed elites to play around on a corner of the Internet, most people have other, better things to do. And, for those not part of Josh Kopelman's 53,651, Web 2.0 did not and will not exist. Ever.
Seriously. I mean, if I have this whole thing wrong, please explain it to me. But do so in English, or at least define phrases such as "...data as the driving force", "...software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of The Long Tail", and "...network effects created by an architecture of participation."
Web 2.0 sounds a lot like digital photography. It's a good idea, but it has a long way to go before it fully replaces that which went before it (the good old SLR) or creates something new. If the latter's the intent, why give it such a dumb-ass retro name?
And, hey, ain't it' good to have old shutterclog back?
Girl ya gotta love your man | Girl ya gotta love your man | Take him by the hand | Make him understand | The world on you depends | Our life will never end | Gotta love your man, yeah
Doors | Riders on the Storm
Note: Tomorrow, I'm going in search of a Muslim 'saint'. A colleague tells me he's buried in one of the caves at the base of the cliffs pictured here. Last weekend, we got this close to the spot. Tomorrow, low tide's at midday so... umm, I'll take some pictures. As for the Muslim 'saint', I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story told me.
