Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Alex Bard (yourminis and Goowy.com) talks about Web 2.0

After our first experiences in interviewing techniques over at DevCom (see below), we decided we were ready for the real thing and flew through cyberspace to stop in San Diego, California.
Why Calyfornia? Not because of the nice weather nor the hot surferbabes, but because it's the home of Yourminis and Goowy.com, and of Alex Bard, ceo and one of the proud founders of these upcoming Web 2.0 sites. We had a little chat with the man, and this is what he had to say:

In three words, what does Web 2.0 mean?

open, collaborative, evolving

Are your websites Yourminis and Goowy.com typical for Web 2.0 and why?

We leverage a lot of the core principles of web 2.0 for both Yourminis and Goowy.com. These include the underlying technologies (AJAX, Flash, XML, RSS), marketing strategies (viral, grass roots), standards (open APIs, mashups), deployment methodology (constantly iterate) and colors (green, orange - just kidding).

What are the biggest differences between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0?

The biggest difference is that web 1.0 was mostly a lean back experience where you were reading content, whereas in web 2.0 you are leaning in ad participating in the creation of the content. Web 2 is more open, more robust, more iterative - its about collaboration and sharing.

What are the upcoming new Web 2.0 websites?

Yourminis is a site we launched 2 weeks ago and have over 150k users. Its is growing quickly and I believe will be one of the standouts in our space. There are other companies that I have a lot of respect for including digg, pandora, google various products and others.

Which brands do you think are most suitable for Web 2.0, and which the least?

Brands that are most willing to embrace change, listen to their consumers, and innovate are most suitable for Web 2.0. Brands that are not are not suitable.

What do you prefer, buzz or traditional advertising?

Buzz.

How can a brand avoid the dangers of users generated media?

User generated content is a great thing depending on your business. If you want to leverage the power of user generated content you also have to empower your members to moderate that content...similar to what Wikipedia does. Put the power back in the hands of the community to monitor itself - perhaps with an added layer of internal monitoring. Again this very much depends on the type of business you are running.

Which features of Web 2.0 do you think will become mainstream, and which will stay underground?

You are already seeing a lot of the underlying principles of web 2.0 moving into the enterprise for adoption. These will become more and more mainstream over time and include various technologies and standards (AJAX, Flash, Open Source, RSS, XML. etc.)

Why is or isn't the name Bubble 2.0 justified?

Its not bubble 2.0 until it happens. People are looking back to the previous bubble and assume that we are in the middle of another. Maybe we are and maybe we aren't - only the future will tell.

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