Those of you who subscribe to Cutter Benchmark Review know that I got my PhD in information systems; it was during the run-up of the NASDAQ. If you faithfully read CBR, you've probably figured that I miss those days. I had my job interview at Cornell University in February 2000 (on a day when a storm dumped two feet of snow as if to warn me about the winters here), and I signed my contract in early March 2000 -- pretty much as the NASDAQ was peaking at 5,048.62 and getting ready to crash, bringing the dot-com era to a screeching halt.

My PhD days were all about innovation and excitement; my early mornings were spent catching up on e-mail and seeing what new and intriguing (and often wacky) applications of IT had been announced and what new business models the entrepreneur of the moment had been cooking up.

Conversely, my first few years as a faculty member were much less exciting, with the early morning spent trying to figure out what (often useless) meetings I had to go to (typically followed by an effort to get out of them) and trying to find the silver lining in the seemingly constant flow of bad news -- from failing companies (sometimes run by people I knew personally), drying funding streams, and shrinking student interest in IT.

With this background, it should come as no surprise that I welcome the emergence and gathering strength of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. As both our contributors point out, much of what gets billed as Web 2.0 has already been around for some time. Netvibes (my new home page) is a supercharged example of push technology, as we called it in the 1990s, of which PointCast was the standard bearer. But for me, Web 2.0 is much more than that; more than a set of technology advances and social trends, Web 2.0 is a mindset. A mindset captured by companies like Epic Trip that are out there on the frontier of innovation and seek to reinvent such mundane and potentially boring tasks such as finding and purchasing travel by leveraging the collaborative, community building, and customer-empowering aspects of the Internet.

In an effort to take stock of this growing phenomenon -- and the surrounding propaganda -- and in an effort to provide you with some unbiased no-hype analysis and guidance, we focus this issue of Cutter Benchmark Review on Web 2.0. Our academic contributor on this installment is Joseph Feller, a Senior Lecturer of Business Information Systems at University College Cork (Ireland). Providing our view from the trenches of business is Tom Welsh, a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium's Enterprise Architecture advisory service and former Editor of Cutter Consortium's monthly Web Services Strategies. Together, Joe and Tom pool their years of experience and do a great job dissecting the Web 2.0 phenomenon in all its facets.

Joe starts his contribution by providing the best analysis I have seen of the definition of Web 2.0. He demonstrates that, the hype surrounding Web 2.0 notwithstanding, a careful analysis reveals many defining characteristics of this phenomenon. He then uses his definition to examine one of the Web 2.0 darlings -- del.icio.us -- to show how such a definition can be fruitfully applied. Armed with a solid definition, Joe examines the business implications of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. I particularly draw to your attention his analysis of asymmetry and the genesis of Web 2.0. In true CBR style, Joe ends his piece with five very tangible guidelines: browse, assess your expertise, invest in training, invest in partnerships, and invest in leadership.

Tom's contribution is a perfect complement to Joe's in that he spends significant time addressing the more technical aspects of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. After providing an overview of the definition and genesis of Web 2.0, Tom helps us make sense of the (still fairly nebulous) Web 2.0 space. His piece is a must-read for anyone who wants to move beyond thinking about the applications of Web 2.0 to his or her organization and actually develop some applications.

I hope that you will find this issue of CBR both useful and invigorating. If nothing else, our contributors point you in the direction of many of the players on the forefront of Web 2.0 so that you can get a clear sense of what the leaders are doing.

I firmly believe that, hype or not, this explosion of IT innovation on the front end is extremely valuable. It reminds me of the words of Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline. Reflecting on the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web (as we called it at the time), he noted that their emergence had once and for all moved IT "from back-of-the-house liability to center stage competitive weapon," and dubbed our time as "the greatest time in history to be an IT professional."¹ We sort of forgot this during the last five years, but the Web 2.0 phenomenon has prepotently jolted our memory.

Even with its inevitable baggage of hype and its share of fast-talking, half-prepared pundits, I welcome the Web 2.0 phenomenon. I welcome it because it says, particularly to students and young professionals, that it is OK to be out there trying new ideas. It tells them that this IT stuff is not only about streamlining processes and wringing every single drop of value out of the operation. IT can spur creativity, both the developers' and users', it can drive innovation and social change, and yes, it can be loads of fun in the process!

And does it matter if we don't really know yet how del.icio.us or YouTube will eventually make money (if at all)? In the short term, that's not the point. I side with Lee Devin who, speaking about the innovation process from the pages of the May 2006 CBR, reminded us that "to call something a failure that is, after all, an essential part of the making process, simply muddies the water. Each iteration brings us closer to an emerging outcome, providing material that's essential to the final product." I hope that, for those of you that want to tackle Web 2.0, this issue will help you iterate faster and faster through these cycles of innovation.

-- Gabriele Piccoli, Editor, Cutter Benchmark Review

NOTES

¹ From Jay Walker's keynote address "Opportunities in the New Economy" at HITEC 2000 (20-22 June 2000; Dallas, Texas, USA).