Generated Transcript

[00:00:01] David Hornik
Welcome to VentureCast.

[00:00:04] David Hornik
Okay, yeah, I’m gonna sing my own jingle because I’m driving in the car, I can’t put it down. I guess I could do that when I get home on GarageBand. Anyway, I’m driving up to San Francisco to go to the Web 2.0 conference and there’s been a whole lot of excitement and buzz around this conference and we’ll see whether it lives up to that hype. But I will tell you this, every person that I’ve talked to that is in this quote unquote, Web 2.0 space has, who I’ve talked to in the last, I don’t know, several weeks has said that they will be at the Web 2.0 conference. So it will at least be a very interesting group of people. I have no idea if there will be anything interesting discussed, but usually when you have an interesting group of people, at least you can have interesting conversations during the breaks or in the lobby or whatever. So that’s great. And I think that the thing that I’m doing, sort of interested in finding out while I’m up there and I’m going to see if I can get people to opine for me and for those of you listening, is what people think this Web 2.0 thing is. There’s been lots of discussion on the web and Tim O’Reilly, who is one of the two hosts of this conference, has posted several posts on what he thinks Web 2.0 is. And the debate continues whether it’s actually anything, whether it’s anything meaningful or whether it’s people are describing anything that they think is interesting in the web. Today the moniker Web 2.0. But either way I’m going to get.

[00:01:39] David Hornik
Out there, I’m going to ask some.

[00:01:40] David Hornik
People what they think Web 2.0 is and hopefully we’ll come up with some interesting answers. I suspect that they will all reflect the biases of the people who are explaining what they think web 2.0 is. So if you’re a tagging company, a company that has some association with tagging, be it Flickr or delicious or whatnot, it’s a spiritual that you think that Web 2.0 is about folksonomies and self organizing web and if you’re a non consumer web service, I think that you think it’s about the web living in the cloud and I think if you are a blogging company, you think it’s about user created content and the like. So it’ll be interesting and we’ll see what people say.

[00:02:29] David Hornik
I’m here With Caterina Fake of Flickr and now Yahoo. Katerina, what is Web 2.0 to you?

[00:02:35] Caterina Fake
Oh, God, no, no, really. Oh, God, no. We need to know. Don’t ask, don’t tell. If you don’t, if you’ve got to ask, you’ll never know.

[00:02:48] David Hornik
All right, I’m here with Tony Conrad while he gets his caricature done courtesy of Outcast Communications. Tony, what is Web 2.0?

[00:02:48] Tony Conrad
It all started and stopped with Odd Post.

[00:03:03] David Hornik
I’m here with Toni Schneider from Oddpost. I’m wondering, Tony, what is Web 2.0?

[00:03:08] Toni Schneider
Odd post was a long time ago. It’s now Yahoo. And Yahoo will be one of the. Leading platforms in the web 2.0 space.

[00:03:15] David Hornik
Good Lord, he’s been practicing. Ross Mayfield, master of Web 2.0. What do you think is Web 2.0?

[00:03:24] Ross Mayfield
Web 2.0 is made of people.

[00:03:28] David Hornik
I’m here with Chris Law.

[00:03:29] David Hornik
Chris Law, who just launched Zvens here at the Web 2.0 conference. Chris, what is Web 2.0?

[00:03:35] Chris Law
Web 2.0 is all about freeing up your APIs and your data, sharing them so they can be used anywhere. And it’s all about user generated content.

[00:03:47] David Hornik
Alrighty, I’m here with Anil Dash Zigzabard asking him, what is Web 2.0?

[00:03:54] Anil Dash
That’s a hard one to take seriously. I think it is. Whatever people who didn’t strike it rich on Web 1.0 feel they need to do to make it this time.

[00:04:13] David Hornik
All right, I’m here with Stewart Butterfield of Flickr and now Yahoo.

[00:04:17] Stewart Butterfield
And I’m going to be doing a reading for you. Here we go.

Some years ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery parts of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the stream and regulating the circulation.

[00:04:40] David Hornik
Herman Melville. Give it up, ladies and gentlemen, here with John Furrier from PodTech. And I want to ask you this. What is Web 2.0?

[00:04:47]Herman Melville
It’s just the next version of the Web. Better, simpler. And all these guys making life easier for everybody. Faster, cheaper, simpler, easier, reducing steps, saving time. That’s what, in my mind, that’s what it’s all about.

[00:04:49] David Hornik
Alrighty, I’m here with Dan Loeb from Yahoo. Tell me, what is Web 2.0?

[00:05:06] Dan Loeb
Oh, my God. The definition that does not die. The word, the phrase, the concept. He’s vamping, he’s thinking. I just, I can’t. Too many people have written about it this week. What does it mean to you? This isn’t about me. This is about you. It’s all about you. Everything is about you, David.

[00:05:28] David Hornik
I appreciate that. All right. I’m here with Dave McClure from Simply Hired. Dave McClure, what is Web 2.0?

[00:05:34] Dave McClure
Web 2.0, it’s a floor wax. This is a third topping. No, it’s a new Web development paradigm brought to you by Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle. That’s it.

[00:05:48] David Hornik
All right. I’m here with Matt Mullenweg, the mastermind behind WordPress, and I’m asking him the question, what is Web 2.0?

Although it’s not up yet, right?

[00:05:58] Matt Mullenweg
No, pause it for a second.

[00:06:00] David Hornik
He’s thinking. He’s thinking.

[00:06:02] Matt Mullenweg
I think Web 2.0 is really it’s what people bring to it. So if you look at Om Malik, he says Web 2.0 is broadband. If you look at Dave Weiner, he says web 2.0 is RSS 2.0. So web 2.0 is really just about people are doing new things, and they’re really convinced that what they’re doing is the next big thing. And everyone thinks that. And I think it’s a better system, it’s a better foundation than there was last time around. Not that I was around the last time around, but it feels good. And so to me, Web 2.0 is about you. It’s about blogging, because that’s what I know, that’s what I do. So excellent.

[00:06:37] David Hornik
All right. I’m here with Charlene Lee. She is a luminary. She will know what is Web 2.0?

[00:06:44] Charlene Lee
One plus one equals two. Is that right? Is that the right answer?

[00:06:50] David Hornik
It is. I’m here with Mary Hodder. What is Web 2.0?

[00:06:54] Mary Hodder
Web 2.0. It’s a disco, not a conference.

[00:06:50] David Hornik
Steve Hall, he’s from Vulcan Ventures, and I want to know what is Web 2.0?

[00:07:07] Steve Hall
It’s cool, it’s new, it’s trendy, it’s connected, it’s open. It’s everything you want it to be.

[00:07:15] David Hornik
I’m here with Nat Torkington of O’Reilly Media, and he’s going to tell me what is web 2.0?

[00:07:22] Nat Torkington
Web 2.0? Equal quantities of money and bullshit.

[00:07:28] David Hornik
All right. I’m here. I’m here with Joshua Schachter, the mastermind behind Delicious. Hi. Tell me, what is Web 2.0?

[00:07:36] Joshua Schachter
It’s the thing with the stuff.

[00:07:40] David Hornik
Here I am with Tom Reilly from Sirius Radio. He’s going to tell us. What is Web 2.0?

[00:07:45] Tom Reilly
Web 2.0 is anything that made you a lot of money this year as opposed to six years ago.

[00:07:54] David Hornik
All right. Yes. No. Yes. Greg. Greg Reinecker from Newsgator is leaving now because he has no definition of Web 2.0. He won’t tell me me. Oh, Greg, come back, please.

[00:08:07] Greg Reinecker
You must be web 1.0.

[00:08:10] David Hornik
So web 1.0 here with Eric Savage from Barons at a very loud party. Eric, what is Web 2.0?

[00:08:17] Eric Savage
Well, it’s a Web 2.0. It’s like Web 1.0, but. But the funding rounds are smaller.

[00:08:27] David Hornik
Mike Siegel with the Guide Wire Group standing here. What. What is Web 2.0?

[00:08:33] Mike Siegel
I’m a little learned. It’s just an excuse for silly valuations.

[00:08:41] David Hornik
I’m here with James Joaquin of Zoom.com and formerly a Vogue photo. And before that, when dot com. Before that, Apple. And before that.

[00:08:52] James Joaquin
Before that, I was washing David Hornik’s car for a fair change. Thank you. Absolutely. Now, David, you need to work on the sound quality of your recording studio because there seems to be a little bit of ambient background noise.

[00:09:05] David Hornik
Too much noise. So, Mr. Joaquin, what is Web 2.0?

[00:09:09] James Joaquin
Web 2.0, in a nutshell, is your web. You control it. You own it.

[00:09:18] David Hornik
It’s my web.

[00:09:19] James Joaquin
It’s all of our web.

[00:09:23] David Hornik
All right, I’m here in the podcasting world. Doesn’t get any better than this. Here with Ev Williams of Odio. Ev, what is Web 2.0?

[00:09:33] Ev Williams
Web 2.0 is the Web times 2, times 2.

[00:09:40] David Hornik
I’m here with Michael Tanning, just launched Wink, and this is his party. Michael, tell me, what is Web 2.0?

[00:09:53] Michael Tanning
Well, it seems to be a lot of crowds and tight spaces right now, but, you know, when we’re not so crowded together, it’s about user interactivity and sharing information. Sharing the love. Sharing the love.

[00:10:06] David Hornik
Well, so there you have it. Not a whole lot of straight answers on what Web 2.0 is, but it was a great conference, a lot of excitement, a lot of energy. And I will say that I think everyone could agree with Mark Hedland’s definition of Web 2.0. So here it is.

[00:10:22] David Hornik
Marc Hedlund of O’Reilly, you tell me, what is Web 2.0?

[00:10:26] Marc Hedlund
It’s a great way to get people to conferences.

[00:10:29] Marc Hedlund
It sure was that. And I still haven’t gotten my voice back. But. But I’ll look forward to Web 2.0 next year. Maybe by then it will be Web 3.0. Until then, thanks very much. For listening to VentureCast.