The two problems with Web 2.0
If you look at some of Web 2.0's growing pains, they fall into two main areas. The first is intellectual property issues, the second is identity. Without going into a lot of detail, IP is a problem because Web 2.0 is basically a global mashup and they need content...other people's content. This is the basis for the ongoing Viacom/YouTube debate and ancillary tickbites like the MoveOn/Viacom Colbert parody shoot-out (more on this later this week).
The identity issues, however, are pervasive, deep and troubling. This booboo needs more than an RIAA bandaid to make better. The issue can best be described as a conflict between anonymity and strong authentication. Wikipedia is caught in the crosshairs on this, for instance. The more they authenticate the editors, the better or at least more believable the content will be. Presumably. However, stripping away the identity protection of the editors creates a selection process where only some people will be willing to have their name out there on the articles--perhaps for the wrong reasons.
These two issues, IP and Identity, are at the heart of future Internet growth. Successful technical solutions that can resolve them will spur a bigger, badder Internet in the future. A failure to resolve either issue satisfactorily will guarantee that the next commercial Internet will be stillborn--strangled with its own umbilical cord.
Posted on March 26, 2007
