Brent Holliday with Web 2.0 anti-hype (and get ready for Vancouver Enterprise Forum 2.0)

October 12, 2005 - 9:56pm — bmann

There seem to be lots of cranky people about the Web 2.0 meme. I think that used as hype, it's not that useful. As a general label for a lot of things that are happening with technological, social, and business changes, I find it useful. After all, it seems to be one of those things that you can recognize when you see it.

Brent Holliday, a partner in Vancouver-based Greenstone Venture Partners, recently posted an anti-hype rant on the BC's T-Net site. He makes some really good points, but comes across a little bitter about some of the useful aspects of Web 2.0. I'm hoping to help explain some of those useful aspects, in plain natural language at the October 25th Vancouver Enterprise Forum event. Dick Hardt is running the show, and there are some really great local speakers lined up, including:

Roland Tanglao giving his blogging, etc. talk
Andre Charland, who has been doing AJAX before it was called that
Michael Fergusson on user generated content
Paul Kedrosky, giving a good business perspective on the whole industry and how it all ties together, and who is so well known outside Vancouver that I tend to forget he's a local

Note to Brent: when BC T-Net updates their CMS 1.0, you can get them to fix the mis-spelling of your name at the top of your bio page. :P

Comments

October 18, 2005 - 4:57pm — Brent Holliday (not verified)

Me

Boris:

Thanks for the lesson in how to get to the top of my own Google search. I look forward to meeting you too. Good catch on the bio... I hadn't looked at that in 5 years... I asked T-Net about doing a blog instead of a sooooo Web 1.0 column, but they are not yet big 2.0 believers. BTW, Geoff Hansen is coming as well to VEF, a suggestion of mine to Dick. He and Paul should do a good job of tempering the hype and focusing on the business side. As I said in my column, the enhancement to the web experience and the utility of all things Web 2.0 is fantastic. But the rush to fund any company with Web 2.0 in its executive summary reminds me of nanotech two years ago and B2B six years ago.

Oh, and I found you because about eight of your readers {gasp!} e-mailed me today to tell me that you had made this post. See you Tuesday.

October 18, 2005 - 6:57pm — bmann

Good to hear from you

Thanks for the comment, Brent. I figured a demonstration might be interesting in explaining what Web 2.0 is :P

I absolutely agree that "hype only" companies deserve to be ditched --- just wanted to make sure that a bunch of real companies in our own backyard aren't missed.

I'm in Amsterdam now, but I'll definitely see you Tuesday. Cheers!