Over the past couple of years, web developers, content producers, and other people with very large brains have been talking endlessly about “Web 2.0″. Definitions of this obscure concept vary, but I it’s fair to say that it signifies two, powerful recent developments on the internet:

1. The shift in power from the desktop (MS Office, iLife, Windows, Mac OS, Unix, etc.) to the internet itself in the form of community-driven sites that allow for consensus-building and easily published web content (blogs, Flickr, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, digg, etc.)
2. The shift from a loosely-linked universe of isolated sites to a more semantic way of browsing the web, where comments, ratings, social software, and new search technology enable us to find content based on meaning or relationship.

It’s a huge concept and if I just confused the shit out of you, Wikipedia has an excellent summary. However, it’s happening, will continue to grow and might have the potential to change our society in fundamental but subtle ways. It probably already has.

Anyway, like any emerging technological or social trend, the nay-sayers are constantly declaring it over, as if social moments can “Jump the Shark” like they were a television show or Tickle-Me Elmo or something.

Because the community is the key to “Web 2.0″ it’s arrogant to think it’s over. Maybe there will be a lull in development or a re-focusing on core functionality, but it’s not over. Besides, there are billions of users who have never used del.icio.us or Flickr, have no idea what trackback is, and think AJAX is a household cleaner. The real revolution will happen when these folks cue into the semantic, community-oriented promise of the web.

People with huge brains will continue to watch for and develop the next big thing, that’s what nerds are good at, but I suspect that “Web 2.0″ is another rough draft describing the promise and fundamental principles of the internet.

Yes please, let’s bury the term “Web 2.0″. Something so vast doesn’t need a buzzword, but the concept isn’t dead and the internet and it’s legions of non-technical users are pundit-proof.

ZDNet -Web 2.0? It doesn’t exist
The Cluetrain Manifesto (one of the places this all got started)

(via Digital Web Magazine)