Bled: Everything 2.0

I just got back from Bled where I have attended the conference The Future of the Internet together with Maja Turnsek. The conference is organized under Slovenian Presidency with the support of the European Commission. I have listened to opening statements and to the first session - its objective was to outline the socio economic drivers of the on line economy and usages. It was intended to identify how the medium to long term evolution of the networked economy and society will influence technological, regulatory or policy requirements. The speakers one after another glued "2.0" to several terms (Citizen 2.0, Participation 2.0 etc.) and used "Web 2.0" in different fashion and did not even question the meaning. It is clear that the Web 2.0 is a buzzword and it is difficult to follow heterogenity in meanig behind the phrase. It seems David Silver gives a good point in his introduction to the text History, Hype, and Hope: An Afterward (which feels more like an outline to a more profound contribution than a completed scientific text): "There’s something quite brilliant, from a corporate–consumer–marketing perspective, about the term Web 2.0. Its very name – Web 2.0 – embodies new–and–improvedness: a new version, a new stage, a new paradigm, a new Web, a new way of living. Attached to any old noun, 2.0 makes the noun new: Library 2.0, Scholarship 2.0, Culture 2.0, Politics 2.0."