Open source Web 2.0

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Open source Web 2.0

I've been following the new bubble hype-masters and it seems to me that, for a lot of folks, Web 2.0 is about enabling companies and investors to profit off of user created content, simpler programming models so that built-to-flip companies can throw up new sites fast and slicky-slick AJAX interfaces to lure investors and unsuspecting users to the shiny new services.

So Henri, you're right, Web 2.0 is not about having cool software to install on your own personal web server, it's about getting locked into services provided by and trusting your data to Web sites that you do not control. It doesn't have to be that way, of course, and perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit just for fun (and hits). But maybe we need a list of "the best open source Web 2.0 software" -- and it would include things like open source blog servers, wiki servers, photo galleries, content management systems, social bookmarking clones and etc. Where would you start looking for such software? Google for "open source web 2.0" and where do you end up? Lucky you Henri, you're already there.

Dave Johnson in Blogging 08:36AM Jan 25, 2006 Comments [14]
Tags: Blogging

Comments:

Hi Dave. I've been thinking about this a bit. I think the first gen Web 2.0 apps keep the code hidden as part of their proprietary strategy. When more people do the same thing, it adds more value if the newcomers release some or all of the code. Or, since open APIs (REST and Javascript-friendly) are part of the Web 2.0 definition, that could make up for the lack of code. Or, since many of these Web 2.0 apps are just layers of PHP, there isn't much code to release! There are exceptions, of course... the only one that comes into mind is Tailrank's open source components.

Posted by Migs on January 26, 2006 at 03:06 AM EST #

Have you ever tried "Open Source Web 3.0", or 1.0? 1.5? 2.1? 4.0? 5.0? 6.0?

Posted by Weiqi Gao on January 26, 2006 at 11:52 AM EST #

[Trackback] I am definately not the only one who recognizes the problems with the new Web 2.0 concepts. David M Johnson has a post about how it’s about controlling your data. I completely agree and the web desktop app I am proposing will address those very ...

Posted by An Adventure into Industry on January 26, 2006 at 01:07 PM EST #

I hate to be all pragmatic about this... but the "new web" isn't about the 1% of the worlds online population that runs their own web servers, and is interested in owning the source to the apps that they run; from here on out, the new web platform is about the other 99% of the world that has absolutely no interest in ever knowing anything about the code that lets them share their pictures with their friends, or sell their antique sewing machine, or write messages to their great, great, great grandkids on their hosted blogs. open source was fun and all... but long live open services!

Posted by chris hollander on January 26, 2006 at 02:44 PM EST #

That's very true Chris. But that 1% of the worlds online population are probably the same people who run servers at universities, government agencies, corporatons and other organizations that don't necessarily necessarily want to let go of all their data. Open services are great but open source is certainly not in the past tense.

Posted by Dave Johnson on January 26, 2006 at 03:02 PM EST #

Applications don't have to be open source to run on your own server, so I think there's a false dichotomy here.

Posted by Wes Felter on January 26, 2006 at 03:31 PM EST #

There are still applications out there that are not open source? Say it ain't so!

Posted by Dave Johnson on January 26, 2006 at 03:45 PM EST #

Funny, but you should have been searching like this: "open source" "web 2.0"

Posted by Michael Bernstein on January 26, 2006 at 06:17 PM EST #

Well, there is "meneame" (http://www.radialistas.net/clip2.php?id=1500230), a digg-clone in spanish. It is licensed under the Affero GPL (http://meneame.net/faq-es.php)

Posted by topopardo on January 26, 2006 at 08:09 PM EST #

whoops sorry, the first link should point to http://meneame.net and not there. Bad copy-paste!

Posted by topopardo on January 26, 2006 at 08:10 PM EST #

Dave, you are right, "It doesn't have to be that way". I suspect the next generation of solutions like this will rely much more heavily on standardized data fragment formats (most likely "microformats"), and the services will aggregate (probably as well as hosting data for those without their own sites/inclination) data from your pages. I imaginatively call this "data at the edges". The problem of who owns the data is of course one which has troubled pundits quite a bit of late. Smart interesting people like Jeff Veen of Measure Map/Adaptive Path have put quite a lot of thought into the issue when building their solutions, and I think the first thing anyone building such a service should do is explicitly make a way for you to get out, and take your data with you in an easy and dignified manner :-). A couple of random thoughts john

Posted by john allsopp on January 26, 2006 at 10:12 PM EST #

Maybe Apache should start hosting these services as opposed to just offering the bits:-)

Posted by Patrick Chanezon on February 07, 2006 at 06:50 PM EST #

Apache hosting is not an improvement IMO because people don't necessarily trust Apache, and they probably wouldn't offer SLAs anyway.

Posted by Wes Felter on February 07, 2006 at 07:46 PM EST #

I don't know, may be because now it's too easy to roll out your own Web 2.0 application in a weekend using smaller components and frameworks (a.k.a Rails)?

The Open Source / Free web (1.0?) applications were mostly about a huge code base that you can download and setup at some premises no one can argue. But, how about having the full control over the code. Not modify the ones that you download, but rather build from scratch whatever you see serve the business requirements. After all, there is a "configuration" learning curve for most of these Web 1.0 applications.

I agree that it's hard to come up with a large set of features within a short period of time (did I say weekend), but, most of the quoted/reviewed/available Web 2.0 services are very easy to implement. The success of these services is all in the idea and the usability rather than the set of features it contains. I guess Rails and such are promoting a smaller code base (with no tyring setup configurations) vs. a large feature set with a code base that becomes more of a green monster.

Web 2.0 is the era of "start-building-something". It's the delivery of ideas rather than the delivery of code.

Sorry, trackback gave errors. Posted on my blog.

Posted by Tamer Salama on February 09, 2006 at 12:19 PM EST #

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