To Which I Say "Yuck."

While there's no strict agreement on exactly what Web 2.0 is, much of it involves public participation and contributions from the commons.

Web 2.0 is very open, but all that openness has its downside: When you invite the whole world to your party, inevitably someone pees in the beer.

What's most interesting about the article is the last page, which suggests Web 2.0 is better because it's easier to fix.

This is an interesting theory, and has worked in other industries. Thirteen years ago, I was selling photocopiers; pretty much "boot-camp" for anyone with designs on sales and marketing. Prior to 1990, manufacturers had strived to produce copiers that wouldn't fail. By '92, however, they had mostly changed their tune, now declaring that with so much heat, pressure and static electricity inside the darn things, they were bound to break. Thus, the smart copier companies changed their engineering strategy so that copiers could be fixed faster, easier and cheaper than ever.

Fortunately, I've been out of that game for several years now, and can blissfully say I have no idea what the copier pitchmen are saying today. But in theory, it makes a lot of sense.