Isn't 'Web 2.0' just another gimmick?
I mean it's sort of real, it sort of exists, but really, there is no actual 'Web 2.0'.
All that's happening is the backbone of the internet is getting slowly upgraded and lots of websites have sprung up that allow people to stick any old crap for anyone to look at.
However there is a gleam of light in all this garbage.
For example gaming websites, like Bosskillers. Yes I know, but here's my explanation. It may be that the information here is largely useless bollox, but it does what it does very well. The information is properly structured, delivered coherently and in a manner that allows your average person to learn what is being presented.
Now fast forward to the near future and ask if this experience isn't of benefit to those creating websites with some actual useful content.
They know how to structure and present the information in a readable form. They know how to create visual aids and make those aids accessible, and they know how to coherently blend this information together.
So to me Web 2.0 is simply more bandwidth, with some people that know how to make the most of it in a coherent manner. We just don't have anything useful yet, partly because real businesses haven't employed these individuals and given them useful content to present, and partly because you still have to pay for information that is of real use in the real world.
Let me put that in another way, you have wikis and you have websites that have experienced and qualified contributers. The problem is the wikis are free and the real information costs money. When the designers of the wikis are put together with the people that actually know what they're talking about, we'll have something worth calling Web 2.0 - provided the hardware has been upgraded to gigabit while we wait.