If you didn’t win a pass, GigaOM readers can still get $100 off conference registration or a free Expo Pass. Simply go to http://sf.web2expo.com and enter the code websf08ob15. Online registration closes at 5 pm on Friday, April 18.

See you at the conference,
Joey

(akshay.kothari@gmail.com)

There’s a lot of truth in that. But the actual answer lies in the fact that Web 2.0 hasn’t just changed my daily routines — it’s given me a new lease on life! Here’s the causality:

(1) Web 2.0 lowered the cost of entry.
Great for people like me who love DIY projects and starting companies. Unlike the dot.com days, now you can do it yourself. Previously, I raised $35M over the course of four companies. My new start-up CHALLENJ is all home-made and out-of-pocket. (To get big, VC still matters — we’ll probably raise $500k around launch — but that’s cherry pie after putting together a syndicate to get $10M.)

(2) Web 2.0 is about participation.
Laurence Hooper, who just launched his public beta of loladex (http://apps.facebook.com/loladex/), wrote the best definition I’ve seen: “If its primary value to a user depends on the participation of other users, it’s Web 2.0.” I love the fact that almost anyone can deliver a useful (or entertaining) service to whomever they care about — businesses, consumers, friends, co-workers, kids, and the rest of the world. Apparently, a lot of other folks do, too — which makes for an innately viral industry.

(3) As a result, a ridiculous amount of progress is made daily.
Unique to Web 2.0, the pace of tech development has never been greater. (I say this from the perspective of someone who was a tech analyst in the 70s, founded a chip company in the 80s, and launched a personal-printing portal and Internet infrastructure company in the 90s.) When else were things created, invented, on a daily basis? The 70s, maybe, in semiconductors?

(4) You learn new things every day — you have to.
For those of us involved in Web 2.0, it’s drinking from the proverbial firehose. Yeah, I still read the features in NYT and WSJ (online, of course). But the longer analyses in weeklies, monthlies, and magazines like HBR, not so much. Send no dead trees to my home, thanks. There’s only one place to turn . . .

(5) Blogs are feeding it all.
Which takes us all to back to the first sentence. Something’s happening every day — a launch, an acquisition, a mashup, an invention, a Facebook policy change :) Before blogging, you wouldn’t hear about most of them. And when you did, it was usually a press release coming through AP. I’ll take blogs’ typos and sloppy grammar any day, in exchange for analysis. Somehow, the news will effect me, so I want opinion! Will that acquisition be epic FAIL? Is this new feature a killer for us developers? Should I be thinking about porting to that platform?? Aghh!

So the biggest change in my daily life? Reading the blogs. Religiously. (Thank God for google reader on the iphone!

I use google calendar to organize my days because it makes it so easy to add an event.
I use farecast.com to search for the best price on airfare because they allow me to make instantaneous changes to my itinerary.
I waste less time by using netvibes.com to bring it all the sites and blogs I like on the net.
I stopped watching TV totally because all the content can be found online in a nicely presented manner may it be through the network’s own websites, hulu.com or Joost. Netflix’ Instant watch is another breakthrough.
I have customized my Firefox to express my personality and to take full advantage of the internet by using extensions like CoolIris, Greasemonkey, PicLens, Foxmarks, ShareThis.
I have changed my way of communicating with people and use interactions that happened online as conversation starters in real life. Facebook wall posts and meebo chats are just a few ways my generation interacts.
I find restaurants near me on Google maps and find the reviews on Yelp.

In short, I would not even own a laptop or PC if it wasn’t for the internet and the Web 2.0 transformation.

Still, all these e-connexions do not replace human contact.
That’s why I would enjoy to meet people “in real life”, shake hands, and share smiles at Web 2.0 Expo.

A self-taught web designer, I have long been accustomed to investigating topics that I feel the need to learn more about or that I am curious about. So, naturally, I Googled “Web 2.0″ and read the still-evolving Wikipedia article on Web 2.0. Blogs, social networking sites, photo-sharing sites… okay. I had a Livejournal blog, a Myspace account, my own little online photo gallery… but how was this new? The Web and the Internet had seemed social to me since my grade school days, when I would sneak into the library at lunch and telnet into talkers to chat with my friends on the other side of the world (the librarians never had any idea).

I was more immediately curious about the idea of Web 2.0 web designs. I liked the first few examples I saw of wide, colorful sites with lots of rounded corners and buttons and white space. I felt like a kid bursting out of the candy shop with a fresh strip of candy buttons — little dots of color, like tiny islands, deliciously arrayed on a sea of white paper. Irresistible. I kept searching for more examples, then tutorials on how to make my own Web 2.0 designs.

Inevitably, I started reading blogs about Web 2.0 design and new trends in and techniques for using typography, color, code. Then I subscribed to the RSS feeds of my favorite blogs or those of the websites I had been checking daily for months. I fervently whipped up new designs and, just as swiftly, ran into new code problems; I Googled around for answers and would inevitably find new blogs or social networking forums featuring useful hacks or solutions that I would integrate into my repertoire. I mused over, groaned about, and delighted in news in the world of web design, code, and technology that was mutually volleyed between and within blogs and social networks.

And there, somewhere between the tags in a designer’s Flickr portfolio and the comments in one blog or another, it clicked. Web 2.0 had become part of my daily life. It -is- a part of my daily life. I have come to rely on that social, collective intelligence just to do my very job. I use it to find inspiration, solve problems, keep current, market my business, and develop new strategies. I am no longer using the Internet merely to communicate with others… I am using it to collaborate with others. Together, we are shaping the landscape and mindscape of the Internet, pulling businesses, economies, and societies along with us.

When I hear someone refer to “Web 2.0″ these days, I still smile — but more out of satisfaction than amusement. The term seems less like a piece of jargon to me now, and more like a new way of thinking and doing.

kentara_at_gmail_dot_com

1. Use of the “original communication tools far more efficiently”. I no longer have to be on the web in an AOL inbox getting hit with spam and reading meaningless bylines, and changing screens on every click - Circa 1992. I can now use the Inbox in my desktop (and/or web) email client efficiently - RSS feed readers, Linkedin plug-in to network, and of course view GigaOM Shows in my preview pane! My RSS feedreader tags my favorite reads, forwards my favorite reads to my team (and files interesting research right in my email client!), lets me publish to my blog, and understand my readings (and those of my team) by looking at the analytics (worthy mention Attensa RSS plug-in & feedserver which I use). Web 2.0 has made my desktop email client a mini Bloomberg!

2. A non-coder who can now write simple applications that “increase productivity” (and reduce costs) - no more hostage to the SAS programmer or the Excel Macro expert.

3. The consumer influence (or more aptly social pressure) that is challenging enterprises to “think out of the box” of legacy systems - influencing the policy driven exposure of rich data-stores holding actionable intelligence in collaborative environments - enhancing the revenue generating initiatives of not only their own companies, but those of their entire ecosystem (worthy mention, my favorite JackBe Presto).

(1) Within 1 week of uploading an interview with an artist signed to SonyBMG on Youtube, Sony contacted us and we now have a major contact in A&R that has given us promotional material and considered running a contest on our site. Before Youtube, it would have been much harder for us to reach them.

(2) Through Facebook, my brother and I connected with an Inc. magazine senior contributing editor and were interviewed for her upcoming book on Gen-Y entrepreneurs. I have also been interviewed for a UK book thanks to LinkedIn and the new answers feature (I responded to a question about successful stories related to social networking).

(3) Through Facebook we landed a paid speaking engagement at Boston College’s Entrepreneurship Society last fall and got a major article in the school paper. That event lead to an introduction to the founder of Obsidian Launch, who has been on “The Big Idea”, and we can now reach out for advice at any time.

(4) Within 2 months of joining Facebook, we were invited to an event and introduced to our first VC firm and then an angel investor who now serves on our advisory board. We had been working on landing these kinds of meetings for years.

(5) We were approached by a major social networking site and were presented with a revenue share agreement, creating a new revenue stream for our content and not being totally dependent on the traffic to our own website.

To sum up: We can push our content to where people already are and increase revenues while also making it easier to network with people we consider important to our success. Thus, we spend everyday researching and evaluating more opportunities, as well as maintaining existing relationships.

With blogs, Twitter, Flickr, Myspace and Facebook, I personally feel that I can share myself and what I have to say, and I always know that there is someone out there who will read it and care. With Web 2.0, I feel empowered and stronger, knowing that I do have a voice, a presence, and the support of my entire virtual community.

So thanks guys! <3 you all!

Web 2.0 is not a goal but a step to better access, share and improve contents and everyone knowledge. In the future, I expect more from crawling and mashable tools.

As I often say, “I see what I understand and I understand what I see”… but what about “seeing new things to have new understandings”!.