The above link is to the handout from our &Now presentation, which introduces Erewhon 2.0 by analogy with Web 2.0. The handout tries to demystify some of the hoopla that has attached itself to the phrase “Web 2.0.” If you are a pure literary person who has not heard of Web 2.0, the following short explanation from the handout should suffice:

Web 2.0 is the much hyped “interactive” second generation of websites in which user-contributed content is as important as information provided by the site owner. Web 2.0 has undoubtedly been a commercial success with sites such as Amazon.com, Ebay, craigslist, Netflix, etc. On a crass level, the owners of successful Web 2.0 e-commerce sites exploit their customers twice instead of once by selling customers information that other customers have provided for free. On the other hand, good Web 2.0 sites provide a mutual benefit for the site and the customer, for example, by offering useful book recommendations for free at the customer’s request rather than annoying unsolicited advertising of books the customer doesn’t want.

In addition to user-contributed content, Web 2.0 includes a related set of equally-hyped new media marketing ideas involving branding, remixing content, blogging, multiple platforms (ie not just web browsers, also mobile devices, etc.), “free” and “freemium” content, use of large collaborative sites (e.g. Tumblr, Youtube, Flickr). These techniques bring in eyeballs and make it possible to spin off a potentially infinite number of products out of the smallest possible investment of creativity and money. Ideally these products should be quick and easy to produce because the new content is made by remixing elements of the previous content with free user-contributed content.