Mimeo Lounge

Web 2.0 for the Rest of Us

Posted on October 10, 2007 at 8:50am, written by Jeff Grill, VP Marketing

While the technology elite believe we are moving on to Web 3.0 (the intelligent web where we move from searching to finding), most of us are just discovering Web 2.0.  Case in point, the learning and development profession and their millions of students/employees.

The other night I was reading Marc Andreessen’s blog about all the whining (ok not everyone, but lots of people) around the end of the new technology bubble, while at the same time thinking back to the recent CLO conference in Tucson where Chief Learning Officers are just beginning to understand how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into their curriculum. 

Like anything in life, the issue is some shade of grey and follows the technology adoption curve since behavior tends to be consistent over time.  Student or employee willingness to use blogs, widgets, wikis and other approaches to knowledge transfer is ingrained in those just graduating college, yet is just starting to be adopted by the mainstream.  Said another way, adoption is following a classic curve where the early adopters are now being followed by late adopters and laggards.  Since the majority rests in the later 3/4 of the adoption curve, we are just getting started.  If this is only the beginning then you have to believe that not only is there not a bubble where technological tools exceed demand, but in fact the tools that will be used by the late adopters haven’t even been invented yet.

What’s nice is that you can look to companies such as the IBM and their Global Business Services Practice and people such as Hemant Minocha to lead the way for the rest of us that are just beginning to see the promised productivity gains of this new frontier.  For me, if someone finds a way to integrate my son’s high school physics curriculum into the ESPN ticker I think we’ll have something.

Tags: blog.pmarca.com, hermant minocha, ibm, ibm global business services practice, marc andreessens, netscape, web 2.0