May 17, 2006

Web 2.0: Great Leap Forward?

Web 2.0 solutions from European innovators were in the spotlight at Innovate!Europe 2006, Zaragoza, Spain.

A panel of experienced VCs plus a Web 2.0 innovator discussed the significance of the buzzword, moderated by Michael Arrington, publisher of TechCrunch networks and serial entrepreneur.

Fred Destin of Atlas Venture sees the Web 2.0 movement pulling the user back to the centre of the architecture, potentially challenging the publishing, broadcasting and advertising models.

Judy Gibbons of Accel Partners -- whose career spans H-P, Apple and Microsoft -- saw Web 2.0 applications impacting the mobile phone space in Europe. Judy saw demand in Europe for continuous data access via mobile phone on the Blackberry model. She forecast that Web 2.0 applications would enabled continuous data refresh to mobile phones without having to go through the operator.

Philippe Collombel of Partech International counted himself among the Web 2.0 sceptics. Quite a number of web watchers feel Web 2.0 is a fancy name for a predictable technology evolution.

Tariq Krim of Netvibes was the Web 2.0 entrepreneur on the panel. His customisable web GUI enables users to manage all their daily information feeds and service providers from one page. Tariq said that the net has become too complicated. Web 2.0 applications will return to users control of their information.

Posted by Philip Gallagher at May 17, 2006 07:48 PM