Rise of Web 2.0 ushers in an era of change

Web 2.0 has been a bombshell to business and government, and no one knows how the landscape will look when the dust settles.

At a social networking conference earlier this month, backbencher Tom Watson, who was the minister for digital engagement until June this year, described the web as disruptive and transformative but positive in that it forces openness and accountability.

Government has never been under so much pressure to release information and communicate with the electorate, with some areas proving easier to prise open than others. Ordnance Survey information will be made available online early next year, but the government is more reluctant to address issues such as e-petitions – hardly surprising given a 2007 petition against road charges saw a thumping 1.3 million signatures submitted to the site.

Meanwhile, Twitter has been throwing its weight around, as evinced by the chorus of tweets (culminating in 22,000 complaints to the PCC) provoked by the Daily Mail’s homophobic article on Stephen Gately’s death. Marks & Spencer and other brands withdrew advertising from the Mail’s web site as a result.

Speculation is growing as to how Twitter could be used by businesses. Co-founder Biz Stone said last week he is considering offering commercial accounts for businesses to communicate with their clients.

The internet has also been extremely disruptive. For example, the entertainment industry still has not figured out how to deal with the problem of illegal file sharing. Lord Mandelson’s recent attempts to crowbar copyright enforcement clauses into the Digital Economy bill seem positively draconian.

The traditional press is also struggling to sustain its old business model. News Corp and Microsoft are reportedly in “early-stage talks” to cut a deal that would prevent Google indexing the media conglomerate’s news. This is an attempt by Murdoch to try to force Google to pay for News Corp content, which he plans to put behind pay walls next year.

The question of how to maintain a free press in a digital world also needs to be addressed. As Watson said, Twitter, blogs and forums are good at expressing sentiment, but truth is another matter altogether.