There was a book fair at my office premises, and they were selling Britannica encyclopedia CDs for a handful of thousand rupees. I was taken aback and wondered why on earth who would like to buy these CDs, when I have an option of
wikipedia! A friend didn’t seem to like my view, and added that it is a trusted source of information (an artifact!) and I could use it offline (Am I ever on a computer
and offline?). I didn’t want to get into an argument for she found some emotional (!!) value..I had no comment!
Looking back, did I ever need an encyclopedia? School days were best spent on study books (they were more than enough), and college had a library. Work life gave me the need to search, and I ended up googling to find real time info, with varying details.
Wikipedia happened to be a profound source of information, and it has been getting richer ever since.
Little did I realize that I had actually started being a part of
web 2.0; a phenomenon that took the virtual world by the storm. The wikis, web services, blogs et al are facets of this new way of the web.
SaaS, or software as a service has only increased our dependence on the internet. It isn’t long when it was considered that the Internet is only good for business or “wasting time”. Some companies still forbid usage of Internet from offices, citing productivity losses!
So what’s
web 2.0? Historically, the concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between
O'Reilly and MediaLive International in 2004. We are progressing towards the web being a platform, applications wont stay at your PC any more, they would be somewhere in the multidimensional databases, you access them over the Internet.
Google has already taken a few steps towards making the web a “better place”. Look at the multitude of applications from Google, they don’t sell software anymore, they sell services. The concept of web services is central to the theme of web 2.0.
Wisdom of Crowds
Amazon.com’s competitive advantage comes not from its existing catalog of books, but on its user engagement. Wikipedia is managed by individuals, who do not want to be seen as trouble causer.
Orkut is a network of individuals, who like to keep in touch. The fact that humans love collaborating is corroborate in the number of existing orkut users (these days they have stopped showing the number of users, but its close to a billion)
Blogging has created many writers (including me). These are just extensions of personal web pages, but what differentiated blogs from personal web pages was the ease of publishing (and subsequent end user popularity). The world of web 2.0 is one in which audience decides what’s important, not a few people in the back room. Call it a democracy in the cyber world!
Web 3.0 is the next thing. We do not know how big a buzzword it will get, but rapid development (and acceptance) of technology, coupled with user participation will create the virtual world a better place (or a chaotic place, it’s too early to guess)
e to pink, and now to red; after losing its master to the 
ongoing real estate projects at Rajarhat. Its competitor, Airtel was always in red (though its P&L statement is not). What differentiates the two telecom players now? Only the strength of the brand will tell; for telecom services are now commoditized.
ve 
en!); the Air Deccan. But after years of being in blue and yellow (its logo), and its P&L deep in red; the airline is in for a major revamp. The blues would soon change to reds; if Vijay Mallya has his way. Yet it did not seem likely that a full service flyer (Kingfisher) could be associated with a low cost (and less reliable) Air Deccan. The latter has a presence in the B category cities, so Kingfisher would now have a slice of the pie as well. This acquisition is possibly good for both 