Web 0.0 and the childlike maturation of web business models.

The iterm "web 0.0" refers to the absense of a true business model for the social web.  You can’t blame the Googles of the world, nor the web itself – we have only ourselves to point fingers at here. We love social web tools, but so far we’ve only been willing pay for them with our souls (our identity is traded to advertisers) rather than with money.

I view this prevailing web 2.0 business model of “identity taxation” as an inevitable part of the social growth of the Internet, analgous to the growth of a child. The phase we’re in now (web 2.0) is like elementary school age – we’re overwhelmed and gleeful about discovering people and being social, but we haven’t yet begun to chafe at the fact that we have no true autonomy or independence. I suggest the next phase (not necessarily named “3.0″) will be like teenage years – a somewhat rough period of emancipation where personal identity and freedoms will emerge. With that comes responsibility, and therefore the emergence of more mature business models.