Ready For Web 2.0?

As we here at CRN gathered last fall to discuss our plans for the Web, it should come as no surprise that the term "Web 2.0" came up more than once as part of the conversation.

LARRY HOOPER Can be reached via e-mail at lrhooper@cmp.com.

Even defining the term led to deeper "discussion," to the point that the whole CMP Channel Group Web redesign project later earned the code name ChannelWeb 3.0 internally. For all of those insisting that CRN and ChannelWeb become part of the Web 2.0 world, take that! Our cleverness astounds us.

But the exercise was not without its merit.

Of course, the business media and the popular press are agog with Web 2.0 coverage. Internet properties, sniffing the riches of the late 1990s, are scrambling to be adorned with the moniker. If your site is Web 2.0 material, it's obviously worth billions, right?

Still, there is no need to dismiss all the hype without further investigation.

Truly, sites focused on teenagers are gaining traction with user-driven features and user-contributed content of all forms. And YouTube, the user-contributed video site, delivers traffic numbers that surprise most of us. But do those practices translate to the business world?

In the end, we did decide to add some Web 2.0-type offerings to our new ChannelWeb site, adding deeper community features and a user-content rating system, with more features to come that let solution providers become more involved.

But our decision doesn't answer the underlying question: What does Web 2.0 mean to the businesses that aren't serving as online diaries for millions of teens? And what does it mean to the VARs and solution providers that serve those businesses?

Surely, some solution providers are involved in building these sites. But are solution providers taking Web 2.0 features to their everyday business clients? And are those clients biting? Do they care?

These are questions we all should be asking now, because even if you are not going to your customers with Web 2.0 on your tongue, someone surely is or will be. The first one with the right answers wins.

WHAT'S YOUR WEB 2.0 STRATEGY?
E-MAIL LARRY HOOPER AT LRHOOPER@CMP.COM OR CLICK INTO CHANNELWEB.COM AND POST YOUR COMMENTS THERE.