I’ve been reading about “Web 2.0″ for sometime. I also run into sites that utilize the verbiage Web 2.0 to make it look like they are “with it.” Many times chuckling at the basic meaning as what Web 2.0 proposes is pretty much how I’ve advised clients to think in regard to their use of technology from the start.

Most of the folks I work with are still struggling withe Web 1.0! The number of online business owners who still do not use this technology to it’s full advantage due to (select your excuse):

Not enough time…
Not enough money…
Not enough patience…
Not enough desire to learn…
Not a realistic bone in their body…

can’t even imagine or fathom what the latest buzz is about in regard to Web 2.0. The short story is Web 2.0 “refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies”. In other words a more interactive and social environment that most I know would be comfortable with.

You can read the good, the bad and the ugly of Web 2.0 here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0.

I’ve said it for over a decade. Technology doesn’t slow or hold back for anyone. Keep up with the trends, use the latest tools and resources to your advantage, become a sponge and learn, learn, learn. Only then can you expect to truly have enough of an understanding of what is involved to prosper online.

Web 3.0 , the brainchild of Tim Berners-Lee who for the most part is credited for inventing the World Wide Web in the first place (also know as the Semantic Web) sounds very similar to 2.0.

Tim Berners-Lee originally expressed the vision of the Semantic Web as follows:

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A “Semantic Web”™, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The “intelligent agents”™ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.” —Tim Berners-Lee, 1999

I can’t wait to meet Hal!

At your service,
Judith

As I have for the past 12, at this time of year I always review my business and think about what I would like to accomplish in the year ahead. This is when I make changes to my policies, my operations — my methodology on how I choose to run my business. Here’s my top 5 moving into 2008:

1. Redesign my site. Done.
2. Revamp my voice to site visitors. Done.
3. Identify potential clients truly up to the challenge an online business requires. Work in progress…
4. Not work with those who are demanding, rude or do not pay their bills on time. Work in progress…
5. Create a personal project list and make that a priority. Work in progress…

Many of my clients, new and old alike, have e-mailed with positive comments about my new relaunched site and tone. Many commenting that my new site is more “me.” My old site was well, old. Although a good site based on being effective and the contacts it generated, one day, I woke up and didn’t like it anymore.

This epiphany was inevitable. I was no longer comfortable with the approach my site portrayed to those who didn’t know me. Something that had been eating away at me for sometime because I realized that to actually make the magnitude of changes I wanted would take time — lots of it. As it turns out 5 weeks of every free moment (on weekends too) to create this new site before my target date of the end of this year.

For years I thought it best to give the “corporate feel” to my site. This included all the blah-blah-blah and pages that simply did not represent my current modus operandi.

Now, my tone is a more relaxed reality based approach that comes naturally to me. I am just a one-woman-shop, that gives personal attention and service to an elite group of folks who when they read my words my approach rings true for them.

If while at my site and a light bulb goes off — then we probably can work together. However, if you feel online business sounds like too much work, commitment, expense, learning and doing — it is probably best you skip my contact form.

For those that appreciate a consultant that treats them with respect (and returns the courtesy) and doesn’t sugar-coat the truth or hide the reality of what they need to know; it’s going to be a sweet 2008!

At your service,
Judith