web 2.0 is about the shift from software to data
Tim O’Reilly is always interesting and so insightful. I have written up some notes from an interview that he did at web 2.0 in Germany:
http://uk.intruders.tv/Web-2-0-Expo-Berlin-Fireside-chat-with-Tim-O-Reilly_a242.html
In this interview and in recent posts about the social graph, Tim O’Reilly really clarifies what is at the heart of successful web 2.0 applications:
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/11/opensocial_social_mashups.html
#It’s the data, stupid. (Formerly “Data is the Intel Inside”)
This means applications that can use data from multiple social networks.
# Small pieces loosely joined
This means aggregating relevant data from its source rather than requiring the data to be moved from one application to another.
I agree with Tim that these are the two key principles of any successful web application and they are at the heart of our new web app for conferences: Swift.
Here are my notes:
“The best 2.0 companies are collecting really assets in data: flickr, del.icio.us, and cddb. Find new areas where there is unexploited data. Facebook tapped into building the social graph as a new domain asset.
Once you have a really large data set, people are not going to want to start over. That is where you have your advantages.
The point is to put me the user back at the center: I don’t want to see their tweets; I want to see their photos and with somebody else I want to see where they are right now.
We have all of these great datasources and they are not interoperable yet.
What is really has the potential to change things is when somebody says you are in charge of your data and you are able to delegate and say my family tree is at genie.com; my books are at amazon; and use that data please.
I’m excited about the new user interface metaphors in the iPhone.