End of the childhood of Web 2.0?

An interesting article on the BBC Technology page showing the effect of La Credit de Crunch on Web 2.0 with the thoughts of the man who coined the 2.0 concept, Tim O'Reilly. For those of us who've had to listen to the rubbish from consultants, web enthusiasts and blogger-types (damn, outed myself there) on how we need to create social networks, get lawyers blogging, sharing the knowledge and using these tools to make and maintain business networks this article makes some great points! Maybe Web 2.0 has finally grown up due to hard times and the need to actually justify itself in terms of (that crazy concept) ... return on investment.

Tim O'Reilly states ""You have to conclude, if you look at the focus of a lot of what you call 'Web 2.0', the relentless focus on advertising-based consumer models, lightweight applications, we may be living in somewhat of a bubble, and I'm not talking about an investment bubble"

Most people would agree that despite the soft benefits behind Web 2.0 from everywhere from a Law Firm internal wiki through to the massive success of Facebook et al there is a distinct lack of commercials and ROI in everything. Talk of click thru Ad revenue, SEO and the like masks the distinct lack of business drivers, return on investment (unless of course you flog your non-money making cool gadget to microsoft!), and profits!

It's not all doom and gloom but at the end of the day this technology needs to ultimately make money, especially if they are to be used in large business enterprises like a Law Firm or Tax Firm. There is a future in Web 2.0, however in these dark hours the commercial and ROI imperative comes back to the fore. It may not be so fun but it will at last be focused and concentrated on the real problems and how this technology can solve these issue. Leaving the final word to Mr O'Reilly:

"The next great companies don't come from jumping on the bandwagon," he said. "They come from finding something really meaty and tough and hard and putting your best minds to work on it and making the world a better place as a result."

Get those grey commercial Web 2.0 cells whirling ... or just hang on for the next Web 3.0 "reality bubble" to emerge if cold, hard commercials are just too scary.