I often have the radio on in background. And so it was that I got to hear the BBC’s “click on“. It’s a “pop-web” magazine program, and the presenter (inevitably) introduced some “blogging pioneer and web 2.0 expert” to talk about “Web 2.0”. Yeah right. More hot air.

Well, blow me down if this interviewee didn’t say the first sensible thing I think I’ve ever heard¹ about Web 2.0. Namely, that it’s not new: it’s returning to what the Web started out as in the early to mid ’90s, before vacuous brochureware became dominant. Corollary: it’s been there all the time, thank you for starting to notice.

[1] Not just on mainstream meeja.  That includes the High Priest of “web 2.0” hot air, who I saw last year at OSCON with many of his acolytes.