Small is the new big

I've been thinking a lot lately about the differences between web 1.0 and web 2.0. I've boiled my thoughts down to something I am testing against everything I read these days. My assessment is this: web 1.0 focused on the big things like financing, hardware/software, and manpower. In web 2.0 the focus is on small things like speed, simplicity, and message.

Can you see how very different the focus is from 1.0 to 2.0? The entire game is changing. We have no need to consider financing for a website project anymore...the tools are there for little or no money...or you can just start a blog which might actually be more helpful anyway. The barriers to entry with software and hardware are minimal and manpower is one of the last issues you consider anymore.

In the web 2.0 world, all of the old worries that troubled organizations in web 1.0 are assumed to be taken care of. They are given little more than a passing thought: "Oh, I need an online presence? I'll (manpower) just start a free (financing) blog (software)." ” This is why the "little guys" are now big. They don't have payrolls or overhead or red tape or corporate agendas. Instead they have passion and understanding that the other guys just don't get. In fact, they can't get it...or not easily anyway. They're slow, controlled, and complex.

Jack Welch, the famous CEO of General Electric, had a chapter in his book Jack: Straight from the Gut called "E-Business" in which he talked about the enduring and lasting impact large, stable companies would have with ecommerce and the implementation of the Internet in their business. He essentially said that the big companies had to weather the storm of the web 1.0 bubble burst and were fine to slowly integrate new technology in their existing business models. I think Jack was right on...five years ago. The thing he couldn't have anticipated was the change in powershift to the individual. That slow adoption may well have been a good thing back then but there's no need for it now. Now, the bloggers and diggers and emerging broadcasters are the voices that will continue gaining the attention of increasing numbers of individuals...and that's big.