Web 2.0 is a Snail

...at least that the way this interesting post begins. While reading Nick Carr's incredibly relevant Rough Type, I linked through to Cloud Street authored by Phil Edwards and his poignant perspective on Web 2.0 entitled, "Not a Fish at All."

Worth a read.

"But Web 2.0 is not a snail.Web 2.0 is the people pointing and shouting 'The snail! The snail!'Web 2.0 is also the people who overhear the first group and join in, shouting 'The whale! The whale!' and pointing vaguely upwards and towards the nearest ocean.

Web 2.0 is also the people who hear the second group and panic about the approaching whale, or is it a land-whale? what is a land-whale anyway? whatever it is, there's one coming and we'd all better... well, we'd better tell someone about it, anyway - I mean, there's a land-whale coming, how often does something like that happen?

Web 2.0 is also the people who hear the third group and improvise a land-whale parade, with floats and dancers and drummers and at its centre a giant paper land-whale held aloft by fifteen people, because, I don't know, but everyone was talking about land-whales and it just seemed like a good idea, you know?

And Web 2.0 is the people who come along halfway through the parade and sell the roadside spectators standing-room tickets."

My contribution to thought link...

"And what of the marketers behind anything Web 2.0? They are the scalpers, creating the frenzy, selling overpriced tickets that may or may not even be related to the 2.0 show. But they are definitely flooding the market with expensive tickets, and unfortunately people are buying them."