Subscribe to Open Source RSS feed One key aspect of next generation Internet applications is the breadth and depth of participation expected by users.
While Tim Berners-Lee has complained that the Web 2.0 meme misses the point that the web was always supposed to be about collaboration and community of users, the reality is that first generation web sites were generally focused on a broadcast model: pushing content out to users whose only task was to consume that content and navigate the links between documents.
As the web grew in complexity, applications became transactional, enabling users to purchase goods, and perform remote data manipulation tasks like online banking. The arrangement, however, was still very much an interaction between one user and a monolithic application. There wasn't really anything social about it.
Today the expectation that users have is that they will not only be able to transact, but that they will be able to participate in a meaningful way in the experience. In the consumer space they experience YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, SecondLife, and the Blogosphere; when they come to corporate websites they often return to the web circa 1999: transactional at best, maybe even just informational.
Enterprises need to rise to this user expectation, and engage directly with their audiences in a community.