---
title: "What matters 2.0"
date: 2006-05-14
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2006"
    url: "/tag/2006.md"
---

# What matters 2.0

![2.0](https://web.archive.org/web/20111114231806im_/http://static.flickr.com/28/59848164_e982b4f266_m.jpg)[Tim Bray](https://web.archive.org/web/20111114231806/http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/05/12/Web-0.3) in a post entitled What Matters: “Every day that goes by I believe more and more that the only important new thing is that the Net is [read-write](https://web.archive.org/web/20111114231806/http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/stern?entry=web_2_0_in_three). Everything that matters follows from that.”

I came across this the same day that I noticed a [new](https://web.archive.org/web/20111114231806/http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/05/my_commencement_speech_at_sims.html)[round](https://web.archive.org/web/20111114231806/http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/05/tim-oreilly-and-defining-web-20.html) of ‘defining web 2.0’ posts popping up (it’s a never-ending cycle). I came to the realization at the end of last year that web 2.0 is an umbrella term, a catch-phrase for this era of the Web. It can – and does – mean anything that people say it means. e.g. take this snippet from an interesting [MercuryNews interview](https://web.archive.org/web/20111114231806/http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14577780.htm) with VC Peter Thiel:

> “**Q** What’s different from Web 1.0?
> 
> **A** Those companies that are successful are incredibly successful, and a lot of the other companies have no value at all. That’s the thing that is so dizzying about Web 2.0.”

OK, chalk that up as definition # 53,651 (to pick a big number out of the air).

<High Horse> But I have no problem with all these definitions anymore. *What matters* is that the current era of the Web is vibrant and making a difference to real people. In the end, that means more to me than trying to define what in essence is just a catch-phrase – although admittedly a very handy one with many uses. </High Horse>

Photo: [Tantek](https://web.archive.org/web/20111114231806/http://www.flickr.com/photos/tantek/59848164/)

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_matters_20.php))*