The True Folly of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 can’t see beyond itself.

The current generation of technologists trying to make it big on venture capital and corporate buyouts are failing an innate duty. As affluent, technologically gifted world citizens we have an obligation to work on projects and products that help others. It doesn’t have to be charity, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. What it does have to be is globally-minded.

So many of the businesses and services flying under the Web 2.0 banner exist to serve the same community from which they emerged: the young, the monied, the well-educated. Find all the pretty people, the cool links, the hot bands, the best stuff to buy, the nicest places to go. Tag me a million and one ways to spend my tidy salary in a safe yuppie bubble, and don’t mind the AdWords on the right.

We’re failing our potential.

We are supposed to be the Net Generation. We’re supposed to bring the positive, globalizing force of the network to the people who need it most. Instead, we’re chasing advertising dollars and barely inching technology forward.

Technology? Web 2.0 isn’t about technology. Web application development is a joke. It’s easy, especially after a decade of collective experience. Ruby on Rails didn’t emerge solely out of its developer’s much-touted genius; it’s a codification of best practices wrapped up in clever invocations. AJAX is a five-minute rehashing of technology that’s been around for ages. The code powering Web 2.0 is so rooted in the now that we’re practically going backwards in time.

We should be moving forward. We should be innovating. It’s no accident that people view the Web 2.0 sphere with the same economic, technological, and moral trepidation that they did the Dot Com era. History is repeating itself, and while the market losses may be less, the lost opportunities to do good are that much greater.

If this sentiment strikes you, think about it. Talk about it. Get other people talking. Most importantly, think hard about what you as a technologist can do to make the world a better place. You don’t need to be Ghandi with a keyboard. You do have a chance to think beyond yourself.