Ameritocracy

More on WTIA

We will update soon with more pics, but here is the gist of what we learned and saw at the WTIA Web 2.0 and Beyond! event on Wednesday:

• I’d guess about 20-25% of show participants actually stopped to watch the demo and listen to our overview.  Of that, the vast vast majority of them listened, engaged, and ask questions for quite some time.
  
• Lots and lots of vendors attend these events!
  
• The panel was discussing what Web 2.0 may mean today, and what’s next.  it opened with a rather entertaining video of James Sun asking student at UW if they’ve heard the term “Web 2.0”, or of Seattle 2.0 startups like Avvo, Wetpaint, or Zoodango.
  
  In almost all cases, the answer was no.
  
• General consensus on what Web 2.0 is had to do with user-generated content, increasingly open data sharing (the world of mashups and APIs) despite a few walled garden sites like Facebook
  
• Some of the discussion turned to questions of data portability, and in short the consensus is that the expansion and adoption of the “cloud” - where your data is accessible to you from any device and service anywhere - is inveitable and desirable.
  
• Monetization of Web 2.0 properties… considered grim.  Advertising as a model is seen by the panel as tough.  While Ben at WetPaint said their targeting (b/c they have niche social networks) allows for higher CPMs, broadly speaking the panel expects solely ad-based Web 2.0 properties to hit a rough patch “in 6-18 months” (Janis Machala said).
  
  Particularly for new broad social networks.  There lies death.
  
  So monetization will have a lot to do with, then, encouraging users to pay for increased access and features, and monetization of data (which, while clearly we see this is big for us… I bet “data” becomes the new “advertising” in new Web 2.0 company pitches).
  
  Oddly missing was mention of affiliate sales. 
  
• More in a minute.  Relocating.