Web 2.0: First of all, what is it?

13.04.2006
IT dignitaries discussing Web 2.0 in the enterprise during a panel session Wednesday debated, for starters, what exactly Web 2.0 is and then pondered where it is headed.

Officials including Scott Dietzen, president and CTO of Zimbra and former CTO of BEA Systems, and Jeff Nolan, director of the Apollo Strategy Group at SAP Ventures, covered the topic of Web 2.0 at an IBDNetwork event.

"The hardest thing about it is actually nailing down [what Web 2.0 is]," Nolan said.

"Web 2.0 is REST (Representational State Transfer)," featuring loosely coupled applications and the notion that applications do not have to be hard-wired together, Nolan said.

Collaboration is a big factor in Web 2.0 but not just blogs and wikis, he said. Also part of Web 2.0 is the ability to deliver ad hoc, user-generated applications but not necessarily mashups, he said. Blogs and wikis, meanwhile, could be a precursor to something more compelling, said Nolan.