Web 2.0 – definition

Many people ask what is web 2.0.

Here is a simple definition: web 2.0 = “user-generated content”.

Classic examples are YouTube, where the web itself is only a repository of users’ videos. It can be taken a step further, where content is created collaboratively, such as in wikipedia. More subtle 2.0 can be google, where the search rank is determined by number of links to that page, that is, determined at the end by the users.

I also very much like Reed Hastings definition: ”Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0.”

If you want this blog to be really 2.0, just add a comment…

Maeda’s simplicity

Last week I attented a talk by John Maeda, who is the author of “The laws of simplicity”. Simplicity has always been one of my favourite subjects, and I’m looking forward reading this book. However, I was a little disappointed with Maeda’s talk. He gave an overview of his creations, life experiences and so on, but didn’t really made it to a point. He gave good advices, such as the importance of mentorship, or the old idea that it might be very complex to reach simplicity, but overall, there was a chaotic feeling. He mentioned that an old man once told him: “Your work is empty”. Interestingly enough, I felt a little bit the same. Ideas, but no conclusions. Maybe I’m not sensible to to his art, or creations, but to be honest, I felt it was a little bit childish, and as a visual artist, not very interesting. An engineer trying to be an artist. Maybe the event (OFFF, Barcelona), was not the appropriate audience for him.

So the question is: Have you read “the laws of simplicity”? Do you think it is worth reading it?