More from Hinchcliffe on Web 2.0

Dietrich Kappe, Friday, November 10, 2006 @ 2:38 pm

As you know, I don't really like to be a blog echo chamber. One post spawns hundreds of "check this out" links, but I suppose that's how I get some of my traffic, so maybe I shouldn't be such a fuddy duddy. But I'll still try to keep it to just those posts I think are worthwhile.

OK, so Web 2.0 is one of those frothy subjects -- even frothier than Ajax -- that spawns all sorts of overhyped, frothy posts and articles. Dion Hinchcliffe is a thoughtful and frequent exception to this rule. He's been posting on the subject on his Web 2.0 blog for over a year now and his latest post, The Habits of Highly Effective Web 2.0 Sites is particularly interesting.

Dion points out seven (is this coincidence?) characteristics of an effective Web 2.0 site:

1. Ease of Use
2. Open up your data
3. Aggressively add feedback loops to everything
4. Continuous release cycles
5. Make your users part of your software
6. Turn your applications into platforms
7. Don't create social communities just to have them

I think the first -- ease of use -- is clearly a winner. That is where Ajax can and does play a part. The fifth characteristic is at the heart of Web 2.0, the creation of social networks. More needs to be said on this point, especially when it comes to the Free Rider Problem. If you haven't read much about Communism and the reasons for it's demise, don't worry. If you've experienced the problem of spam on social bookmarking sites -- individuals who get a "free ride" on the work of others by selfishly posting links of dubious quality -- then you know what I mean.

A number of studies have been done on the free rider problem and it's relationship to the size of social networks. All of this research can be used to devise some technical solutions to social bookmarking spam. More on this later.

Technorati : ajax, web20

agile ajax

Comments

• Leave a comment
• Comment feed for this post
• TrackBack URL

None so far.

Leave a comment