Let the true competition between the IP pipes people move from the hoarding of locked-down content (which is quickly moving to seemingly free, where it should be) to the services interface and intelligent filtering capabilities, the higher value-added services of user empowerment and convienent management of all the services regardless of origin.
Listen as we dive into VC activites in 2005, what defines Web 2.0 for the enterprise, and where viral ecommerce and knowledge commerce are heading.
Chip Griffin has some interesting take-aways on the content creation process for Enterprise 2.0. I enjoyed his summation of John Furrier's points, and added some of my own comments. Take a look for more on how corporate content creation is entering a highly productive and efficient new era.
A best example of the intersection between SOA and Web 2.0 here at the expo came in a discussion with JackBe, which is exploring more commonality between SOA activities and Web 2.0-type RIAs. What really grabbed me in my chat with JackBe CTO John Crupi was the recognition that governance needs to permeate beyond the server to the client -- to provide a two-way street for services use and access. And this malleable governance needs to be of a federated variety such that the top-down inputs and attention learning from the users can play a role within the larger guidelines set from the bottom up by IT.
BEA has been talking about the products for over a year under various code names, as the company prepared to dive into the turbulent waters of social computing. The new offerings, part of the AquaLogic suite, include AquaLogic Ensemble (formerly Project Runner), Aqua-Logic Pages (formerly Project Builder), and AquaLogic Pathways (formerly Project Graffiti).
So the Web 2.0 timing today makes it hard to make a buck -- with just a few notable exceptions. But again, as in the Web 1.0, the users are the winners. Web 2.0 is a subset of Enterprise 2.0, which is a subset of enterprise IT. It's great that you can choose to acquire these productivity benefits as SaaS or a stream or download. It's great that you can move your legacy toward SOA principles and benefits, while using the same methodologies to absorb Web 2.0/Enterprise services. Mashups make sense for all kinds of apps, not just Web 2.0 ones.
Yes, Intel has become the best new sugar daddy for Web 2.0, and the obvious new best greased skids for taking the concepts uptown to the enterprise. Cool.
Folks, in the business world, get your own feeds, manage them yourselves, cultivate your own audiences. The idea of today's media-marketing landscape is to eliminate the middlemen, not add in new ones.
The question is: What will be the alternatives for Web 2.0 business functions as either a service or a product suite? Microsoft? Or will there be an open source, non-Google set of alternatives? As much as I like Google and their business offerings, I'd like to see alternatives thrive in the marketplace. Look how well wikipedia does sans Google. Why not an open source Web 2.0 suite that remains, heavens ... commercial open source.
Perhaps I read too much Heinlein and Asimov as a teenager, but the kind of feeling I got reading science fiction then is the same type of feelings I get now while observing the unfolding of Knowledge 2.0.