Just one more thought on Web 2.0

Ok, I know the term "Web 2.0" is overused and way to hyped-up. But after so many months of discussing this subject I took a look back and glanced at a rather more important acticle about this topic: What is Web 2.0 by Tim O'Reilly: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Looking at his Meme Map today, there is one bubble that really gets me thinking next to all the others that we know so much about: "An attitude, not a technology"

Internet users have been using forums and eBay for over ten years, so user-generated content is not really new. Open interfaces existed, technical browser limitations were tackled by new technologies like Flash way before AJAX was hyped... so what has changed? Why is everyone so fuzzed about Web 2.0? Maybe it is really the attitude of all the millions of internet users?! Maybe we now have reached critical mass, because internet access is cheap and widely available and that would mean that attitude is actually driven by technology. PCs have long become a commodity and so has the internet! So suddenly all the internet users have woken up? For me it is a new attitude based on lesser technical and financial restrictions. We are not looking at our watches anymore, counting the money that the connection had costs from the point on when our 28/8 modems started making that funny dial-in noise. Access is easy. Users spend more time in an open medium. They are and will be online all the time. Therefore Web 2.0 in my opinion really is about easy internet access and more bandwidth for everyone, just as Switzerland has recently made DSL part of everyones primary basic home supply. Or would you have uploaded a 6 MB avi-file to youtube a couple of years ago with your 28/8 modem? Wait how Web 2.0 will accelerate once we have a country-wide DSL, UMTS, WLAN or WIMAX access with 10 MB/s plus! Cheap access and bandwidth still limit "mobile 2.0" today by the way...