Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Published today in Smart Company, a newly started online Australian magazine focussing on business and technology is an articale by Brad Howarth, Australia’s leading business/technology Journalist (at least in my opinion), “Web 2.0: the new divide”. Brad and I spoke recently, and quite a bit of what I had to say has made its way into the article. If you are interested in some of the philosophies we have about why and how we run Web Directions, you might be interested.

I suspect over the coming weeks and months, if you are sick of the term Web 2.0, then you are going to become mighty sick of it. It seems all kinds of pundits and experts are crawling out of the woodwork, capitalising on a buzzword few people will give you a decent definition for.

A recent article in the same magazine

Web 2.0 is the new divide in business. A new SME Leaders Opinion poll shows that while half of small and medium businesses are Web 2.0 savvy and engaged in online marketing, the other half just don’t get it.

I’ll be a bit more blunt about it. In my pretty extensive experience, 95% of companies don’t get the web in the slightest. They can’t even build web sites that get remotely close to accepted best practices in basic design, accessibility and coding.

So, when it comes to using the web as a communication medium, how many are genuinely facilitating and participating in conversations? And how many are simply thinking of the web as yet another channel, like television, radio, print and so on. How many understand the enormous intelligence of that connected community of millions of intelligent, passionate individuals?

A good place to keep an eye on many of the missteps, as well as to learn more about the right kinds of steps you should be taking is Laurel Papworth’s online communities focussed site. Laurel spoke at last years conference (slides and podcast available (CC licensed too – just attribute them if you use them eh?)), and is back again this year, running a fullday workshop Building and maintaining vibrant social networks for your business, and speaking on the intersection of social networks and mobile devices.

I’d like to think, while we try as possible to make what we do a “web 2.0 hype free zone”, you’ll a have to try very hard to find a better way to get up to speed with the technical, philosophical, and cultural currents and developments which are carrying the web forward than Web Directions. I’d liek to think the people who attend the conference don’t so much “get” the web, as “grok” it.