Web 3.0 or something completely different

As people are sucking up anything associated with *Web 2.0* one realizes there there truly is born one sucker every second. It’s like this craving to belong to something that people talk about, to be associated with the *new* and with the *future*.

When Flickr started in 2004 it was merely as a way for one of the engineers to share his photos with his friends. He solved a problem that was important to him. And if a problem is important to solve for one person the solution is often welcomed by many.  And it took off.

The difference between cool idea is: I got this problem I’d like to solve cause it matters to me and The market for women is under served online.  Hmm, I’d like to vote for number 1 – as do many.

So what comes first? The category or the innovation? We’ll I’m sure that there are many that could claim the Web 2.0 expression as a natural progression of Web 1.0 (big surprise!). But does that really matter? The key thing is to solve important problem and then what history decided to name it us, at least in the present time, very unimportant.

Book Widgets Are The New ISBN Identifiers

I authored my first book a few months ago, about our sabbatical in Argentina. It’s a 40-page, hardcover dynamo story about the Missus’ and my photographic experiences in Buenos Aires with surroundings. The reviews have been raving – both from mother and mother-in-law.

As most people on this globe, I’ve dreamt of being published. You know having an ISBN number, being found on Amazon et cetera. So I subscribed to their Merchant Pro service for an introductory price of $19.99 per month and started to upload my book with all associated data. Now, I thought I would be properly exposed to their 29+ MM users world wide and the dream of infinite richness would be reality.

I learned that I didn’t have to have an ISBN number but did realize that I had to add 50% on top of the production cost of my book to get to break-even. Furthermore, how would people find my future bestseller? There is no way that I could compete with the bigger publishing houses and their relationship with Amazon for potential readers eyeballs and wallets.

That’s when I realized that my blog will probably deliver more sales than Amazon, just by adding a promotional module in the sidebar, linking to my Blurb Bookstore. That’s cause my blog is my community, where I interact with friends and family. They are the most likely book buyers of my literary and photographic musings. They are my long tail!

If they like my book, then they will probably recommend it to their friends and family. That means that my URL at Blurb is more valuable than mine at Amazon but it’s much cheaper – it’s actually free. That means that I only need to sell a fraction of books to make the same profit. And over time, my audience will grow and I’ll finally become filthy rich.

Switching Themes

I know, I’m guilty of switching themes on a daily basis these days. That’s just cause I don’t feel like any of the WordPress.com templates works for me. And I don’t have time to write my own CSS. I’m frustrated to say the least. So I keep trying on new designs like a spoiled brat is going through her closet, announcing loudly that she has no clothes the fits.

I like to have much more flexibility to integrate services like Wishlistr, Meebo, Flickr et cetera into my context and not the other way arround. I’d like to have my Blurb Bookstore where I sell my books, I’d like my eBay listings where I sell my old tech stuff and my Craigslist listings where I sell all kinds of old crap that I trip over in the closet. All within my own context, with my own look and feel.

Web Two Point Ohhhh

The Social Aspects of Job Searching

Looking for a new job have never been easier, finding one never so hard. The web has provided us with virtually unlimited access to all jobs available in the world. Our resumes can now be ’seen’ by any HR manager anywhere. But still, the friction and switching cost of changing jobs seems to be the same. The first generation job searching sites (Monster, CareerBuilder and HotJobs) are very employer centric and really just searchable job ads. Sure, you can post your resume for employers to view but that’s about it. As time has gone by we have seen some incremental changes (as career tools, saved jobs, saved searches et cetera) but it’s the same old model: an on-line database for employers to search for candidates.

To me the web has always been about empowering individuals to greatness: work from anywhere, communicate with your network, extend your network, aggregate knowledge, stay informed, build your own brand, be a minipreneur, express yourself et cetera. It’s the ultimate democratic revolution.

With the emergence of web 2.0 ventures we have seen the next phase of the Internet: the participatory, collaborative and user-generated web. It’s not only about content anymore, it’s about people.

But few job searching websites embrace this, if any. I’d like to see a web venture that builds a service around the job seeker and his / her network. Think about it: looking for a new job is a very collaborative effort. You use your network to edit and enhance your resume, to spread the word, for references and for landing that first so important interview. Apparently 50% of all jobs are being filled through referrals and word of mouth.

Today the search and find steps are on-line and the rest (writing resume, collecting referrals, setting up interviews et cetera) is offline. I’d like to see all of the different steps in the job seeking process move on-line in a collaborative fashion using your trusted and cultivated network (former colleagues, friends, mentors, current peers et cetera). The power of your network is so strong so why not use it and leverage it on-line when looking for a job?

Some feature thoughts:

- Resume management: make it easy for your friends, peers and former managers to give feedback on your resume. Introduce a core resume that can be customized for different positions (and tracked).

- Job management: make it easy to keep track of the jobs you have applied for, interviewed for, people you have met, deadlines et cetera.

- Your network: Connect your job hunting with your trusted network to tap into referral programs, new positions et cetera.

- References: make it easy to collect and communicate references. (You are who you know.)

- Company reviews: what do people really feel about their company, their business unit and their position? Who is the hiring manager? I understand the sensitive nature of this data but it could be just shared with the trusted network, like Netflix’s peer recommendations.

I know, some of these features already excist but not in a very well thought out, seamless and non-friction fashion. The job seeking process is still very much cut’n'paste while it should be more drag’n'drop.

The Feeding Tube

George Orwell’s 1984 is echoing in the background every time I turn on the TV. It’s something perverse and evil about getting mindless messages fed into your mind. It’s lead by the prevailing überculture that demands attention, obedience and appointment viewing. It’s the few that dictates what’s good enough, what’s appropriate and what is not for everyone else.

Social media changes all that. It allows anyone to create content that anyone can participate in, anytime. You can add to it, change it, evolve it and counter it. The argument from the established media elite is that user-generated content can never be as interesting as watching, erg, Katie Couric on TV. Or equal in quality. That to me is setting the bar damn low. Who’s quality?

The most interesting things in the world is happening at grassroots level. That’s where consumers connects with great products, that’s where opinions and original thoughts are generated and that’s where life is lived. That’s the real life and nothing could be more interesting.

The advent of social media has made it possible for anyone (remember the concept of democracy?) to not only participate but initiate, to startup important conversations and connect them with other conversations across the world. And a world that communicates and shares does not go to war. Only the Machiavellian nationalistic power elite does, with the hope of being remembered in history. Do not worry, you’ll.

What we are seeing right now – the Lieberman case being the prime example (hey, you got your 15 minutes) – is a shift in power and control over media and opinions, driven by people’s desire to participate and express themselves. Enabled by new technologies, contexts and platforms such as YouTube, Flickr, Digg and MySpace. And we have only scratched the surface. All these services are fairly rudimentary and will evolve with time, acceptance, new technology and practice. Think about it, where would Katie Couric be without the Tube?

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