Beyond Web 2.0 ?

I had barely caught up with Web 2.0 to find its already passe ! Today's SJ Mercury News has coverage of the DEMO conference by Dean Takahashi, (one of the journalists who can tell you the most about technology and Silicon Valley). He defines Web 2.0 as the world of blogs and podcasts and describes beyond that as sharing " our own books, photo albums, greeting cards and movies" online. He goes on to talk about companies like Ink2, OurStory, SharedBook and others which would entice us to go beyond Web 2.0. Somehow I see ghosts of 2000 in this scenario, but maybe its because I was too close to the bust :-) But, Dean also seems skeptical about the ability of these companies to get us past our own inertia and share so much of ourselves. But, if YouTube can generate so much user generated content, maybe there is hope, and big buyouts, for more Silicon Valley companies, after all. For further coverage of the DEMO conference you can catch Dean's blog.

Speaking of the Internet, the other interesting item in the Mercury News today was how Al Gore has become a Valley guy. My last direct sighting of Al Gore was when he spoke at our convocation in 1996 and the MIT Hackers played Buzzword Bingo with his speech. But, he clearly has the last laugh now, with his movie an Academy Award nominee, and close ties to Apple and Google, arguably two of the best technology companies in the world. Maybe I'll see him again one of these days, in Cupertino too.