IBM seems to have a lot of really smart people working for them – or, perhaps, IBM only lets the really smart folks blog.

I’ve gotten a lot from various IBM blog posts/essays, from RSS to ImageMagik.

Thanks.

In chmod 777 web, author James Snell cuts through the buzz and buzzwords (i.e. the bullshit) and outlines what Web 2.0 really is all about:

There is something more fundamental going on right now. The web is becoming more hackable.. in the good sense. People are starting to realize that the web is more than just a publishing medium. It’s a place where you can (or should be able to) actually do stuff. Web sites that let you do stuff are more important than web sites that only let you read stuff.
— James Snell

I completely agree with him, except when he later writes:

Smart companies will provide their users with something to do; something that is of value to the user; something that the user will become loyal to; something that the user will become a part of; something that the user will respect; something that the user will be willing to pay for.

I think Google has the model that works over, say, Flickr – passive payment.

Sure, do a Google Map mash up, for free. At some point, those maps will have contextual ads, that cost you NOTHING. Hey, you might even get revenue from them. This is better than paying for an upgrade to a service.

Hmm…pay for something or get something from free (possible get paid for using this free data). Tough choice…

Does this make sense?

It does to me, which scares the hell outta me…