in response to “Does an online ballet dancer wear a Web 2 tu?”

1. What’s *really* new on the Web, as opposed to buzzwords and sound bites?From a technology perspective I am not sure that there is any one thing that is new, what we are seeing is the emergence of tools (like blogs) that make it easier for people, and organisations to express themselves, and the emergence of an allied set of tools (RSS) and sites (Technorati) that allow people to subscribe to information that they would like to share in.
I think what we are seeing is that now the web is being able to be used in a new and exciting way, and it is more the culture of the web that is changing – as apposed to the tools. Yes the tools are needed – but as time goes on the tools will change and update, but the opportunity presented by the web for people to not only have there say but choose to listen to what they think is worth hearing becomes a significant cultural shift.

2. Which tools best embody the new opportunities from your point of view and why?
Hard to say what tools will emerge as the best ones – but at this point of time the interesting concepts are the blog, tag’s and RSS. Who knows what will be next?

3. Who’s doing the best work with the new tools (technically or in terms of social benefit or both)?
Best work – dare I say is dependent on your point of view. I like the ease of use of wordpress – and from what I have seen of msn spaces I would have to say I am not a fan.
I am using performancing as tool for creating and editing blogs and I find it very user friendly.
With regard to RSS I am still searching for a good (or one that I am happy with) one. I am currently using firefox – but dont think that this is a good option in the long run.

4. What’s the bad news? What are the greatest barriers preventing web-based technology from producing social change?
In simple terms you could classify it into 2 categories – access and education.
It is unfortunate that the two seem to go hand in hand, and that often those in our society that could most benefit from the opportunities presented on the web, do not have one or both of the opportunity to access, and the education to use in a meaningfull way.
It is a challenge that unfortunately there are no easy answers to, but perhaps with the advent of easier to use tools such as those available in the web 2 world – and forums such as NetSquared and the Net2Conf things will improve.

Technorati Tags: cu06, ConnectingUp, net2