Michael objects to the Web 2.0 leadership dissing Web 2.0:

Web 2.0 is not a marketing slogan. It is the slogan of a people’s army. Our army. They are words that help us explain the explosion of conversations on the web, and justify our enthusiasm for innovation. Web 2.0 is why I came back from my exodus at the fringes of technology, to explore the frontier of the new consumer web.

We have been discussing this a great deal lately. I tried to address it when I talked about subverting power structures. Web 2.0 or whatever you call it, it is about the people...about the people's army (and Mike so eloquently put it), the 'me'conomy, the power of us...it's saying eff the limitations of the telecommunications giants and the limits on email inboxes and paying an arm and a leg for connecting with other people. We want it for free, we want it delivered today and we want an awesome service.

Traditional power structures are slowly, but surely, fraying around the edges and it will only get stronger. How can that be equated to a marketing slogan? Sure, anyone can try to co-opt the movement, but the blogosphere and the 'people's army' will just move on. There is a very powerful filter at play here. I don't care what people say.

The technology? Claim it. Don't claim it. I have a pretty good idea of where the 'credit due is where credit is due' sentiment derives from and I don't know why the heck that is so important. Those whose backs we build the tools on will get their credit. But squawking about it now is akin to me saying to my son:

"So what if you are getting straight A's, you need to acknowledge that you wouldn't have gotten them without inheriting my mind."

It totally misses the point. And the point is that people are using it and connecting, and more and more people that build the stuff see this and build more stuff so more people can use it and connect through it. And the connections drive the spread of 'Web 2.0', not the tools (even crappy tools that connect people spread, go figure). It is in our best interest as human beings part of the human race to encourage this behaviour, rather than fight over it.

K...I could go on and on (even more), but I won't. This stuff makes me want to scream. Stop it. Let it grow.

technorati tags: web2.0, subversions, subvert, subverting, peoplesarmy, meconomy, powerofus