Web 2.0 is For Web 2.0 Users…For Now

April 2nd, 2006

I loved this blog post from Monkey Bites, which I saw linked from Geeking with Greg:

“[T]here’s still a fundamental disconnect between people who use the web and people who use the web 2.0. The perceived importance and revolutionary aims of most web 2.0 apps are lost on the vast majority of web surfers. That doesn’t make those people less smart, less hip, or less important than your more savvy users, it just makes them an audience you haven’t reached yet.”

“Most people in web 1.0 land (a.k.a. the “Rest of the World”) would expect your site to behave just like familiar destinations like Ebay and Amazon. People respond to familiar interfaces and functions. Throwing them a curveball will most likely result in confusion — even if all of your friends and co-workers can hit that curveball.”

I totally get that. Reaching users with new technology options that they are not used to is not easy. Does that mean we should stop trying to reach them? No way. It means that we have to make sure that:

1) There is a need for our users to use these tools. If a library starts a wiki for their patrons to play with and nobody adds to it…was it needed? (Substitute wiki for any Web 2.0 technology here).

2) We know what our outcomes will be (somewhat). What is the goal of this initiative? How will it be measured? Will it garner a larger user base or just a few people who we have “sucked in” already with our other services? Does ROI matter?

3) They already have Web 1.0 down and are comfortable with it. On the other hand, is it linear? Do our users need to get Web 1.0 before the get 2.0? I kinda think so, but maybe I’m wrong.

I’m sure that there is more that I missed. My point is that new technologies are very cool, fun, and exciting. But, is there a need to do everything and do we have to make sure that we don’t lose some users while we make sure others follow along? This is very hard to do. I guess what I’m saying is that we shouldn’t “do” technology for technology’s sake. Do it because it makes sense for your consituencies. All libraries and their communities are different.

One Comment on “Web 2.0 is For Web 2.0 Users…For Now”

1. Library Views 圖書館觀點 :: 應用 web 2.0 前的一些思考 :: April :: 2006 Says:
   March 31st, 2007 at 9:08 am

   [...] Library Stuff çš„ Steven M. Cohen 在最近的一篇博文中提到了 web 2.0 目前只服務了 web 2.0 的使用者，而這些人在上網人口中算是相當少數的。他引用 Monkey Bites 的一段話： 在使用 web 及 web 2.0 的人們之間仍有一道斷層，web 2.0 應用軟體所被理解的重要性以及革命性目標並沒有影響到大多數上網的人。這並不表示人們比那些 web 2.0 使用者較不精明或者較不重要… [...]