Enigma of the Web 2.0 elephant

A few days back we had an interesting debate among few colleagues regarding the true meaning of Web 2.0 and its impact on an enterprise. Invariably each one of us had varied view on this. One of them was even enterprising enough to stretch the discussion to Web 3.0 (seems he is not alone; it has already been mentioned here, here and in many other places).

At present the term "Web 2.0" lacks a precise definition; each evangelist, vendor has his own version which further adds to the mystery.In absence of any industry consensus it is been used as a catch all term to refer to any web site that is more interactive and participatory than plain and static traditional web sites.

This reminds me of the blind men and the elephant story.

Ironically, the source of this story itself is debated. It has been attributed to the Jainists, Buddhists and at times to Sufis and Hindus. Check out this wiki entry on this.

Hopefully, this enigma over Web 2.0 will soon demystify and we will get to see the elephant in totality.