[Reader-list] Tao of Internet Gold Rush

[s|s]

Article on web technologies and core non-technology situation of web
2.0 generation

URL: http://supreetsethi.net/drupal/tao_of_internet_gold_rush

I am showing withdrawal symptoms, someone mentioned when we went for a
trek recently. It was not smoke he was talking about but that I was
away from computer for 2 days.

I surf, I surf a lot. Mostly costing my phone bill and some
miscellaneous charges. And I expect the services on Internet to be
reliable. Which always brings to my mind, how the hell are these
people making any money when everything is free. And if stock market
is any reflection of state of "online" companies. They are making
lots.

After touching bases with lots of technological aspects of these
companies. One can make an attempt discerning some of core ideas
behind this gold rush, if I could call it that.

Candy FLOSS
No not the pink one. FLOSS is the cheapest candy in town and every one
wants a piece of it. LAMP(Linux, Apache, MySQL, (Perl/Python/PHP))
have consolidated itself as a heavy weight enterprise web technology
stack. If one keeps the philosophy part on the fences, one can clearly
see the pattern that these "online" companies and LAMP having grown
over the period in similar fashion. Its not mere coincidence.
FLOSS and especially LAMP forms the horizontal building blocks for
vertical application which consists of domain logic aspect of web
application. Vertical and horizontal aspect basically points at if the
technology is specific particular business requirement or general
purpose, wider use type.
So it works in interest of "online" companies to invest in reusable
general purpose technology, which is developed in FLOSS, hence
distributing the cost. Hiring people privy to these technologies help,
giving the technological depth required to modify and maintain certain
parts of these horizontal components. And this provides food and
shelter to many FLOSS developers.

Data thy god
Its all in the data. Oh yes, the money too. Considering that Internet
itself cannot produce data, it is an external input. In forms of text,
sound, images, hypermedia producers online are creating something
which is the only asset online. Banks in form of numbers, musicians in
form of musical notes, IM, images, emails, documents exchanged online.
More intertwined and interpressed, the data with shared comments, more
the value of data itself. Ebay's rating system or Amazon's comment on
the inventory are examples of high value data, which is USP of these
web applicastions. Accumulating data is one aspect, but making sense
out of it forms the basis most successful web applications. Data,
applications to interpret it and Meta-data form the holy trinity of
virtual world.

Entry free, Exit denied
Openness on web is pipe dream. Search for unsubscribe/delete my
account button in your favorite application. In most cases it
wouldn't be there. Openness is about choice. Only choice online is to
consume or produce on web and be comfortable with one/ or set of web
applications. It doesn't matter what you do on web, using vendors web
application as long as you are not breaking it and you are producing a
pattern, a profile which can be used to target advertisements things
are open for you. Normally "online" company wouldn't intervene any
which way because it might bring bad publicity. There have been
exceptions though,
like one recently in China.

Web 2.0, Internet6 etc etc
If we were using complex search queries earlier, we are using tags. If
we were using drab little photo gallery software, we are using shiny
flickr to make sets.

Technologies come and go. But if there is any substance, in Web 2.0 as
a buzzword, that will be in terms of community formation. Most
successful web applications of "Web 2.0" generation are community
centric. These applications are giving consumers/producers ability to
mix and match various technologies to build a web universe of his/her
own. Making locality out of world of online friends and onlines
resources has become a major goal. Again bring the spotlight onto
data, which in this case is user preferences for
personalization.

Internet gold rush is there to stay for now. Despite privacy policy
declarations, one is always left to wonder, how much of onself is left
online which one doesn't want people to see and judge.

Nothing is for free I guess then.