I’ve been talking about the fact that I don’t like Web 2.0. It’s a vague label that in itself doesn’t describe a thing, other than ‘it’s the next generation’ web. But 2.0 implies that there might be a 3.0, etc. etc. Nope, doesn’t do it for me.

Today I came across a much better definition. Totally geeky though:

chmod 777 web

Okay, the label in itself might not sound as ‘catchy’ to the marketers out there, but it so much better describes what is meant with it. That is, if you’re a bit familiar with unix/linux.

‘chmod’ is the command you use in unix to change the read and write permissions of a file or folder/directory. Compare it with the ‘attrib’ command in DOS or right clicking on a file in windows explorer and changing it’s attributes.

With ‘chmod’ you can set the read-write-execute rights for 3 ‘groups’. The user, the group, and the rest.

The first digit in 777 applies to the owner, the second to the group, the third to the rest. 7 means RWX: read, write and execute. So ‘chmod 777’ means, give everyone all permissions on this file, regardless of who they are.

And that’s exactly what ‘web 2.0’ is. It’s a ‘web’ where data flows from both ends. Up and down the stream. People read, people write, people execute. Collaboration.

(another way of writing ‘chmod 777’ is ‘chmod UGO+RWX’… it’s up to you to pick the one you like the most ;-) )

Technorati Tags: , , ,