1. Introduction

Editor’s Note: If you think My Space, YouTube and Facebook are the future of what has come to be called "Web 2.0", think again. There’s a lot more to come and Mark Sigal, CEO of vSocial.com is the man to talk about it. This article is for everyone, end users, potential content producers and people responsible for websites of all kinds. It includes some very useful references. I wrote a column back in March titled "The Web is Flat-Out Boring" that tackles many of the themes Sigal explores from a different perspective. In that column I talk about the change-or-die significance of an important new Web paradigm and some of the tools that are going to bring new excitement to the Internet. If you haven’t already, check out the article and read what Mark has to say. Barry Gerber

A lot has been written about Facebook’s evolution into a Web platform that will support content and features from third-party developers. Articles by Erick Schonfeld (Business 2.0), Marc Andreessen and James Currier, respectively, paint a nice composite picture of the WHAT and WHY behind Facebook’s F8 Platform move, along with its impact on the Internet industry.

Schonfeld suggests that, while not a total "walled garden" like AOL, Facebook’s F8 certainly forces developers to adapt to a closed programming environment, leaving him wondering if this is somehow at odds with the openness of the Internet. After all, if MySpace and YouTube follow suit with their own platforms, developers may have to learn and juggle multiple, proprietary languages.

I don’t look at it that way. I think that we are at the early stages of another Internet paradigm shift - from static text and links to interactive conversations, rich media and online narratives - all of which must be orchestrated. While that may require the creation of new types of social media aware platforms, I don’t think this prospect should prompt Web entrepreneurs, thought leaders, or even developers to run for cover.

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