Cloud Computing & Online Collaboration at the Web 2.0 Expo

The Web 2.0 Expo took place this week at the Javits Center in New York City, organized by the O’Reilly Media Group and TechWeb, with a huge list of corporate sponsors, including Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, eBay, Wired, and Sun Microsystems. The gathering brought together business executives, web designers, programmers, developers, new media entrepreneurs, online marketers, start-up groups, and venture capitalists to discuss the latest internet trends. As expected, most delegates were focused on the keynote address by Tim O’Reilly, with the hope of receiving some insight into the future development patterns in Information Technology.

According to David Berlind at Information Week, who live-blogged Tim O’Reilly’s keynote address at the Web 2.0 summit, the tech guru stated that “the next wave of Web 2.0 is all about sensors and ambient computing (the kind of computing that happens on our behalf while we’re away from our desks).” After looking to the future, O’Reilly had some harsh words of criticism about the status quo, obviously affected by the meltdown taking place on Wall St. while he spoke. He criticized people who are wasting their time on nonsensical and inane applications like the Facebook application designed “to allow you to throw sheep at your friends” or the iPhone app that simulates “chugging a beer”. Summarizing this trend, he stated:

“(These are) pretty depressing times in a lot of ways, and you have to conclude, if you look at the focus of a lot of what you call ‘Web 2.0,’ the relentless focus on advertising-based consumer models, lightweight applications, we may be living in somewhat of a bubble, and I’m not talking about an investment bubble. (It’s) a reality bubble.”

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