The Next Killer Web 2.0 App...

I was right in the middle of a multi-blog post on business success, but I thought this might be more important. You see, it looks like about every fifth Quest is somebody wanting to know how to make the next killer Web 2.0 app.

People! Web 2.0 is a mentality. It's not a delivery mechanism. AJAX and HTML and DOM and JavaScript and Ruby on Rails and and and and and... They're all just so many nuts and bolts.

Take a moment to look at sites like Google or services like YouTube. Or how about the most simple example -- del.icio.us. An application doesn't get much easier to build than that.

Typing a bunch of code into a text editor and then shoving it out to a server and posting it to a couple blogs is an easy, EASY thing to do. I'll bet you a hundred or more "new" Web 2.0 services come online every day. But probably 0.05% of those will maybe survive past their first year of their hosting contract.

Why is that?   [...read the rest...]

The fact of the matter is, it takes more than just a bunch of bytes on a harddrive to make a Web 2.0 application. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that Web 2.0 has virtually nothing to do with over-hyped light-grey-on-dark-grey graphics and everything to do with attitude.

And I'm not talking about schoolyard-bully attitude.

I'm talking about the attitude of getting stuff done. The attitude of being passionate. The attitude of having a vision. Trust me, just knowing AJAX is not going to make it easier to have that vision.

So, what's it gonna take? Let's see if we can enumerate some of the intangibles...

• Web 2.0 apps foster creativity.
• They inspire orthogonal thinking
• Enable collaboration
• Affect the interchange
• They make boundaries fuzzy
• Web 2.0 is about the organic internet
• It's not about money
• Okay, maybe it is about money, but it's about friendship and fellowship first!
• It's a little bit country; and a little rock-and-roll
• It's definitely not about the lingo or the logo
• While a bit dated (only 7 years old), the 95 tenets of the Cluetrain Manifesto provide good insight
• Wearing lots of hats. Many, many hats. Some of them tall, and funny-looking
• You've got to have a heart, but keep things practical
• Enable collaboration. Oh, wait. I said that already. Well, heck -- it bears repeating!

Anyway, I hope you get my point. Don't think of this as a rant; it's more about trying to pull the wool back from in-front of the eyes. Don't be concerned with building a killer app. Do be concerned with making great friends and having fun and being happy with (whatever) code you do write.

You might get away with sitting by yourself in your office (or bedroom; or basement; or dorm room) and coding up the next great thing, but what's the point? It's been done. Apple. HP. Yahoo. Get out. Hack at the coffee store. Find friends. Share. For all the world, you must share! Having twenty ideas is more than twenty times better than having just one idea. It's geometric -- the more ideas you have, the better off you'll be. (And no, I'm not saying execute on all of them... it's really great just to have them. They make your brain strong. Your brain likes to think. Let it think. That makes it stronger.)

Remember, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Harness the intangibles.

Now get out there and get it done!

[NOTE: After having read over this, I realize that it sounds a little bit like a pep talk or a bunch of cheerleading. It (kinda) is. Mostly it's about making Raving Fans. You must be a raving fan. It doesn't matter what you rave about; just be a fan. If I sound goofy or whatever, well then, so-be-it. I'm having the time of my life!]