大象传媒

You would also have to wonder just how real can any 'revolution' actually be when people like Murdoch own the platform...

I think this empowerment of a new generation that you mention is best demonstrated by the case of Iran. I recently read an impressive book about Iranian bloggers, titled 鈥渨e are Iran鈥�. The translated quotes by these young blogger were so real and powerful (at times heartbreaking and sometimes very funny and poignant) that they are forever etched in your mind. I think if nothing else this medium can bring people who are worlds apart closer together in a way that no other media can.

I couldn't disagree with your comment more, Jack. I think Sambrook is spot on - Web 2.0 is revolutionary, and its long-term effects will be profound.

For one thing, the whole point about Web 2.0 is that no-one 'owns the platform', especially not Murdoch.

Low-cost, intuitive software that enables non-technical people to publish - and others to comment on them - are just one example of the way that power in the media is moving from a few publishing empires into the hands of the masses.

Only last week a Telegraph reporter was telling me that his publisher is concerned that as more and more of its journalists speak directly to readers through blogs, the publisher will no longer 'own' its journalists, and those journalists will not 'need' the Telegraph to speak to their own readers.

I am not predicting the demise of publishers, nor of newspapers. But I do predict that in coming years the line between journalism and blogging will blur, and more and more people will be communicating with one another through a far more inclusive medium: call that Web 2.0 if you will.

What's more, in the current Web 2.0 ecosystem, it is actually Google that wields more power than any publishing empire.

This is what is so exciting though as we don't know where it will take us and what impact it will have on us and future generations. An example is the mobile phone and texting. Who thought that texts would make up the bulk of mobile communications when they were concieved. The future is bright and we need to protect the development and allow it to be free ranging

As someone who certainly sees the power of the internet and, although not expert, sees this as largely a positive thing I do feel we need to address one or two issue early in the development of the revolution. My biggest concern is that of 鈥渉ow much can we trust the information we are being given?鈥� It seems to me that all this new media, particularly from simply anyone who sets themselves up on line, is a good thing but needs to be viewed with caution. In a lot of cases there is no professional journalistic principles which go into this media and that means that we are as much in danger of receiving propaganda and mis-reporting from this source as we are from any large privately owned traditional media organisation: if not more so.

While we're on metaphors, I wonder if this web2.0/rock and roll thing brings up a further parallel - that with Elvis Presley. Half the world claims he invented rock and roll, the other half reckons he copied something that already existed for his own personal fame + greed?

Sambrook is right in so many ways. However, we're missing a crucial point. He writes

"In the new world of free information and choice, trust becomes a key factor determining which sites and companies succeed and which do not."

This points up a new and (to me) a disturbing trend; this whole game is not so much about facts as about spin. Trust is a key factor because we're not just gathering facts, we're taking our opinions and prejudices from the blogs and journalists.

Web 2.0 = Punk.

Web 2.0 allows people to be the makers, the speakers and take the power back from industries give a 'homemade' atmosphere and as the Sex Pistols did - Do it yourself. Rather than waiting for a journalist to write about a topic WE make the news, WE broadcast OUR music and somehow dont need anyone anymore. Ok so that's journalist void and record labels void. I'M a web designer but it's the PEOPLE that create the content, it's MY industry but now I'M void!!

WE & OUR - that's web 2.0.

I'm sorry but its hard to take all this "Web 2.0" hype seriously. All it seems to ocnsis of is websites which allow users to post information. This is nothing revolutionary, just another new website tool like message boards etc.

The hype rather reminds me of the last tech bubble - all talk.

To Richard Read-

I thought the same as you for a long time. There is in fact nothing with web2.0 that couldn't have been done and wasn't being done 10 years ago. Except that the public's (and I include non savvy business people / journalists in this) mind was not yet ready for those concepts back then. I constantly have to remind myself that this really does seem revolutionary to most people, even if its not.

But I do agree, I smell bubble, and wherever theres a gap between hype and understanding, theres usually tears at the end.

Web 2.0 is a pigment of somebody's fermentation. Wikis and RSS have been round for years. Many blogs cannot be commented upon, making them mere static web pages.

Innovation can be neither forced, nor predicted. Thank goodness.

Alfred Hermida's post shows a sense of cautious realism to an over-hyped media phenomenon.

Richard Sambrook is really spot on.
Look what "blogging" did ; it is now
the "Voice of People", "VOP" is now challenging the biassed mainstream media. Alfred Hermida, thanks for your wonderful work.

Firefly misses the point about how long technology has been around. For example MP3 players have been with us since the late 90s yet it was only when apple came along with the iPOD that consumers got excited. The point about web 2 is now consumers are using this technology, or to put it another way web 2 is all about making existing technology attractive and easy to use.

Did anyone really rock n roll ever say "I am somewhat of a rock & roller" in the same way as you wrote you are 'somewhat' of an Internet evangelist.

Please don't make me laugh. There is nothing rock n roll about the 大象传媒's totally square attempts at being down with the Web 2.0 kids.