I almost feel like I know the guy in the empty seat, or certainly someone cast from the same mold. Zeldman writes about the state of the web. A List Apart: Articles: Web 3.0.
But ours is a medium in which, more often than not, big teams have slowly and expensively labored to produce overly complex web applications whose usability was near nil on behalf of clients with at best vague goals.
True, and that’s still the case. There’s some people who’ve learned from their mistakes (and some who haven’t), some technology that’s improved (and some that hasn’t), Web 2.0 is not a magic wand. In fact (for me) it’s not really very much, apart from a handy organising thought. But the above quote could just as easily be applied to a Ruby-on-Rails project with lashings of AJAX if it’s being run the wrong way by the wrong team.
We’re on an upward tech curve, innovation is happening. VCs and money people are catching up. And for them Web 2.0 is just a lazy shortcut to describe a load of stuff that has been combined to make a few good web apps work better.
That sort of feels like where Zeldman is going too. And he ends the piece with a lovely message which I felt was written just for me:
To you who feel like failures because you spent last year honing your web skills and serving clients, or running a business, or perhaps publishing content, you are special and lovely, so hold that pretty head high, and never let them see the tears.
But just you wait till I get my AJAX, Ruby driven, social dog walking group reminder photo blog service up and running. The VCs will be whacking down my door with their greedy fists. Or something like that.
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