there is a non-branded word for kleenex, and for q-tip. I am not aware of an immediately understood term ot replace web2.0. Maybe “participatory web” but that looks & sounds like crap. Jargon has it’s uses.

At a stretch it means ‘with regard regard to’ framed as a double negative.

nice new blog Hugh, this lay-out is sweet business indeed

“When exactly were you “able to begin participating in the web, without any technical knowledge”?”

And you answered:

easy: free hosted blogging. previously:
– i did not know how to set up a web site
– i did not want to have to learn how to set up a web site
– i did not want to pay money for a web site i didn’t know how to set up

We’re in agreement over this. You didn’t answer “When Web 2.0 started”, but rather “free hosted blogging”. That was the catalyst for you. When companies started to offer free, managed blogging solutions, that’s when the barrier to entry disappeared for you. For others, maybe it was when podcasting was made easy by the last major release of Garageband. For others still, perhaps it was when Wikipedia saw the light of day.

My curiosity has nothing to do with how or when larger masses of users started reading / writing to the web, but rather how you came to use the term “Web 2.0” as a label for this evolution.

To me, it’s the same thing as hearing someone ask for a “Kleenex” when they really want a “tissue”, reading about someone stabbing themselves in the brain with a “Q-tip” when all we really know was that it was a “cotton swab”, or watching someone “use Powerpoint” when it’s really just a presentation.

“Web 2.0” is a brand to me, nothing more. And yes, I’m very aware that I’m part of a tiny little minority.

Oh, and Ella – I’m no coder. I’d almost take offense to that, if it weren’t coming from someone who hangs around the kind of people who say things like “commence to start”. (kidding!) :p