Web 2.0 Acid Test

On the eve of the second annual Web 2.0 conference, Tim O'Reilly posts a longish analysis that tries to get to the bottom of this slippery label, "Web 2.0." Ever more important because more and more marketing departments are slapping this label onto their products because it's hip and bleeding edge, O'Reilly's piece is seminal because of his position of authority.

In recognition of this enhanced definition, I've gone in and renamed my 2 year old "Web as a Platform" category "Web 2.0"

You really should read through to the end but the list of qualities (you don't need all) that make up a real Web 2.0 company are worth pulling up below:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

Words to live by in this new age.