“It is hard to imagine that five years ago, neither YouTube, Facebook nor Twitter existed. But even then, as sites like Google, Amazon, Wikipedia and craigslist flourished, the characteristics common to successful second-generation Web businesses were becoming apparent: Their value was facilitated by software and created collectively by and for a community of connected users. These sites leveraged the Web not simply as a means to publish static documents but for the first time as a platform–which was significant in its generative properties as the personal computer was for desktop applications. The new sites also sparked a revolution in business, culture, society and, most recently, government.”

Read more:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/23/web-squared-oreilly-technology-breakthroughs-web2point0.html

“The digital world is changing rapidly. The explosion of social networking and the emergence of the real-time web in Twitter, FriendFeed and Google Wave are bringing new challenges and opportunities. The shifting landscape means that companies will need people with unique skills — whole new careers are being created. Companies should be thinking about the skills that they’ll need — and start planning to acquire them now.”
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http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/09/career-opportunities-in-the-newnet/#ixzz0WOCvwdTK

“This week ReadWriteWeb is running a series of posts analyzing the 5 biggest Web trends of 2009. So far we’ve explored these trends: Structured Data, The Real-Time Web, Personalization, Mobile Web / Augmented Reality. The fifth and final part of our series is about the Internet of Things, when real world objects (such as fridges, lights and toasters) get connected to the Internet. In 2009, this trend has ramped up and is adding a significant amount of new data to the Web.  In this post we’ll see how companies as big as IBM and as small as Pachube are building up this new world of Internet data and services.”

Read more:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_5_web_trends_of_2009_internet_of_things.php