What put the ‘2’ in Web 2.0? The Foundation Attributes that enable the economics of Web 2.

The Foundation Attributes that enable the economics of Web 2.0, such
As Tim O’Reilly’s Meme Map shows, Web 2.0 services share many
attributes. But which create competitive advantage and prompt fast
growth? By tracking the services that embrace Web 2.0, we can
identify attributes that have made a difference.
as the network effect and the Long Tail, pre-date other attributes by
several years. They exist in many non-Web 2.0 services. Experience
Attributes have surfaced much more recently, and these give Web 2.0
services a strongly differentiating competitive advantage: relevant,
human, and surprising user experiences.

1994 1995g 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
in
r
te
fil

ts
e
tiv

en

I
AP
m
ra

ra
bo

eb
og
n

co
la
la

W
pr
sp
l
co

er

on
s
es

Am s
om

te

az
ice
ia
sin

st

fil

rv
bu

cu

af

se
Amazon.com

eb

k
RS link

W
ce

ac
...”
ch

er

kb
a
ht

rm
m
un

em

ac
S
ug
om

pe
la

Tr
st

bo
Blogs
sy
sc

so
n
es

al
io
nl

at

h
...
s

io

nc
og

ht
ut
ct

au
ug
p

I
bl

fri

AP
re

rl
bo
rly

s
eBay
ge

ap
eb
ea

ho

og

nk

M
se
sw

Bl

Ra

le
ch

le
en

l
og

og
ai
er

ge
un

Gm
Go
om

Ad

Go
Pa
la

st

Google

s?
u
“c

ok
a
di

bo
ch

ch
pe
un

un

iki
n
it
Nu

tio
su

W
la

la

co

a
r
Wikipedia

to

rm
te

ro
ps

fo
p
Na

ny
’s
en

pa
h

m
Co

s
co

d
e
Exemplars »

kr fee
vic

ch

BitTorrent
un
er

lin d
ls
se
ch
S

ol
la

en
ty

un
r
te
ni

lic

s
la
ps
er

es
Del.icio.us
Et

Na

gn
e

tin
Th

s
ch

re
un

te
in
la
s

Flickr
ie
m
no

s
o

er
ks

st
l
fo

clu

network
effect remixability
« Attributes

the long tail co-creation

user emergent
contributed decentralization
systems
value

Foundation Attributes Experience Attributes

http://www.adaptivepath.com

These attributes frame the economic model of These attributes create unique service experiences that were undeliverable
version 1 October 15, 2005

Web 2.0 services. They allow services to scale before Web 2.0. Users can tailor services and systems to create new,
efficiently to accomodate many customers. relevant experiences that meet their needs on their terms. The value
brandon schauer
Adaptive Path

However, many non-Web 2.0 services also
benefit from this same foundation (e.g., email
and bulletin boards). Therefore there must be
more that differentiates Web 2.0 from what
came before.
generated by these new experiential attributes fuels the economic models
created by Foundation Attributes. If a service doesn’t embrace one or more
of these attributes, it can’t enjoy the competitive advantage and fast growth
that Web 2.0 makes possible.
About the attributes
FOUNDATION ATTRIBUTES
User-contributed value — Users make substantive contributions to
enhance the overall value of a service.
The Long Tail — Beating the sales of one or two best-seller products
by using the Internet to sell a cumulatively greater amount of the
products that have low demand or low sales.
Network effect — For users, the value of a network substantially
increases with the addition of each new user.
Sources
The timeline of exemplars is meant to emphasize relative order of
events. The following sources were used to construct the timeline.
AMAZON
Christine Frey and John Cook. “How Amazon.com survived, thrived and
turned a profit” Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporters. January 28, 2004.
<http://tinyurl.com/dx6j8>
“Join Associates” Amazon.com. <http://tinyurl.com/cogqx>. Accessed on
October 10, 2005.
BLOGS
“Blog” Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog>. Accessed on October
10, 2005.
Rebecca Blood. “Weblogs: a history and perspective” Rebecca’s Pocket.
<http://tinyurl.com/335xu>
Tom Coates. “On Permalinks and Paradigms...” Plasticbag.org June 11, 2003.
<http://tinyurl.com/2ubls>
“RSS (file format)” Wikipedia. <http://tinyurl.com/6jfu9> Accessed on
October 15, 2005.
COLLABORATIVE FILTERING
“GroupLens: an open architecture for collaborative filtering of netnews”
Computer Supported Cooperative Work;
Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative
work. ACM Press. 1994. p . 175 - 186 <http://tinyurl.com/dmwrg>
DECENTRALIZATION
Kevin Werbach. “Tech’s newest trend — decentralization” ZDNet News.
October 24, 20902. <http://tinyurl.com/e2446>
DEL.ICIO.US
Ethan Todras-Whitehill. “‘Folksonomy’ Carries Classifieds Beyond SWF and
‘For Sale’” New York Times. October 5, 2005.
“license to license” blog.del.icio.us. August 17, 2005.
<http://tinyurl.com/b3stn>
“we rolling” blog.del.icio.us. August 18, 2005. <http://tinyurl.com/8ucok>
EBAY
Adam Cohen. The Perfect Store: Inside eBay. Little, Brown and Company. 2002.
EXPERIENCE ATTRIBUTES
Decentralization — Users experience services on their terms, not
those of a centralized authority, such as a corporation.
Co-creation — Users participate in the creation and delivery of the
primary value of a service.
Remixability — Experiences are created and tailored to user needs
by integrating the capabilities of multiple services and organizations.
Emergent systems — Cumulative actions at the lowest levels of the
system drive the form and value of the overall system. Users derive
value not only from the service itself, but also the overall shape that a
service inherits from user behaviors.
EMERGENT SYSTEMS
Steven Johnson. Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and
Software. Scribner. 2002. 288 pages.
“Emergence” Wikipedia. <http://tinyurl.com/76mk7> Accessed on October 14,
2005.
FLICKR
Richard Koman. “Stewart Butterfield on Flickr” O’Reilly Network. February 4,
2005. <http://tinyurl.com/d9v63>
“Flickr launches ranking service—‘interestingness’” Connected Internet. August
2, 2005. <http://tinyurl.com/ex8bd>
Stewart Butterfield. “The New New Things” FlickrBlog. August 1, 2005.
<http://tinyurl.com/at44f>
GOOGLE
“Google Milestones” Google.com. <http://tinyurl.com/8ghot> Accessed on
October 10, 2005.
Chris Richardson. “The Gmail Ripple Effect” Webpronews.com. July 12, 2004.
<http://tinyurl.com/9v73s>
NAPSTER, BITTORRENT, AND FILE SHARING
“Brief Timeline of the Internet” Webopedia.com. <http://tinyurl.com/c75jp>
“BitTorrent Gets $8.75M” Redherring.com. September 27, 2005.
<http://tinyurl.com/9fs28> Accessed on October 10, 2005.
Ross J. Anderson. “The Eternity Service” <http://tinyurl.com/dlv5o> February
20, 2001.
THE LONG TAIL
Chris Anderson. “The Long Tail” Wired. October, 2004.
<http://tinyurl.com/d7f7k>
WEB SERVICES
“Web services activity” W3C. <http://tinyurl.com/7o5su> Accessed on
October 10, 2005.
WIKIPEDIA
“Wikipedia” Wikipedia. <http://tinyurl.com/878d8> Accessed on October 10,
2005.
Daniel Terdiman. “Wikibooks takes on textbook industry” CNET News.com.
September 28, 2005. <http://tinyurl.com/9dr5o>