The Web 1.0 generation tends to think this kind of openness is madness. If we're Web 1.0, we're seriously afraid of giving out our email address, we fear identity theft, we're uncomfortable with websites planting "cookies" on our computers, and we're reluctant to fill out web forms that ask for personal information such as name and email address. In contrast, the Web 2.0 culture maintains personal MySpace pages and public Flickr photo accounts. They use online bookmarking services, and have MyBlogLog identifiers. They publicize the music they're listening to and the blogs they subscribe to. They post their vacation photos and videos and anything else that can be shared. They are the polar opposite of older folks who don't even want their names to show up on a web page out of fear of the information falling into the wrong hands.

Not only are Web 2.0 people open with their identities they also talk with each other and make friends with each other. What do they talk about? Everything, including where they are going to eat before a show, and what they think about the latest track on iTunes. The vast collections of Web 2.0 activity made up of individual's preferences is what makes up much of Web 2.0 and what is driving the changes in the marketplace. Community, conversation, and openness is happening. It is driving Web 2.0.


I've used bookmarks a lot in my examples. Earlier I asked you to imaging what would be possible if everyone shared their bookmark data. But you don't have to imagine it. It already exists. Many people no longer use their browser's built in bookmarks. Instead they use online bookmarking services like del.icio.us, Diggo, and Furl. I've written about del.icio.us in Wikis, Swikis and Blogs, part 2. Basically, sites like del.icio.us are, at their most basic level, simply online alternatives to a browser's built in bookmarking feature. Instead of bookmarking sites in a browser you add them to your online del.icio.us account. But there are two big differences. First, de.icio.us bookmarks are typically public (though you can make them private, that would defeat the primary purpose). It's also different in that rather organizing bookmarks in folders, you use "tags" instead. A tag is a single word that you use to identify and describe a web page. Any bookmark can have multiple tags. So if I were going to bookmark a site like Search Engine Land in my del.icio.us account I might use the words, searchengines, SEO, and blog. As I'm adding my tags, del.icio.us also tells me what words other people have used to tag Search Engine Land, which gives me insight into how others categorize that site. Because bookmarks are open, I can actually see what other sites have been tagged with these words, and which users have tagged this site, and every other page each user has tagged. That's a lot of openness. And it has created a rich and growing perspective of the web.


But it's not just about bookmarks. In the same way that del.icio.us is creating a huge community of aggregated bookmarks, Flickr is doing the same exact thing with photos. Last.fm is doing it with music. Technorati is doing it with blogs. Yelp is doing it with local reviews and recommendations. And Spout is doing it with movies and DVDs. There are hundreds, even thousands of other such communities growing up in and around specific areas of interest.   next >