Web 2.0 - The MTV of Technology

There have been so much attention by the masses on this thing called Web 2.0. Everyone sings praises about Web 2.0, everyone thinks it’s today’s biggest thing, and oddly, also the next big thing. People who are in it thinks they’re cool and they are like the rock stars of tech. People who are are not in it hope that they could be part of it. Even Singapore government thinks that the country is losing out for not having our very own YouTube or Flickr.

This whole “Web 2.0″ thing, to me, is similar to the introduction of MTV to music. It brings the advancement of technology to the masses, to the public eyes, just like how MTV brought music to our homes in the early 1980s. Both of them bring what are usually hidden from the general masses to the public eyes and make them appear cool. Artists who have not been producing music videos suddenly start to produce music videos upon the arrival of MTV. Similar phenomena is happening to technology, the nerdy engineers and programmers who were previously working behind the scenes are suddenly feeling that it is time they get into “Web 2.0″ so they can also be celebrated and be like a rock star. This whole “Web 2.0″ thing does not really just affect the engineers, it also affects a lot of businesses and people in general. Suddenly lawyers and docters are seen reading books on AJAX or Ruby on Rails and printed media companies and many other previously non-technology related businesses are trying to be ‘in’ by attempting to introduce some “Web 2.0″ elements to their otherwise unrelated businesses.

Music has changed due to introduction of MTV, just like how technology culture has changed due to Web 2.0.
The arrival of MTV is due to the widespread of the television boxes, and the arrival of Web 2.0 relies on the widespread of the WWW.

Suddenly music, regardless of how good they are musically, suddenly became uncool if it does not have a music video that accompanies it.
Similarly, suddenly, technology, regardless of how innovative and creative an idea is, suddenly became uncool if it does not revolve around Web 2.0, thus not-so-publicized and accessible by the masses.

Personally, I do not know what this whole “Web 2.0″ culture is all about. Suddenly techies and geeks are interested in gathering around in “unconferences (the term coined by the “Web 2.0″-ers to appear to be different). What do they do in unconferences? Most of the time, nothing constructive is being discussed in these unconferences and a lot of the times I see the attendees trying their best to bash each other, so the bashers could appear ‘cooler’ then the bashed ones. And the best thing of all, almost all unconferences that are taking place in Singapore also involves the debate that attempts to define the term “Web 2.0″. Doesn’t that sound ironic? The attendees think they’re the cool “Web 2.0″-ers, thus they’re the ‘in’ bunch, but all of them seem to have different concept of what “Web 2.0″ is, and only care about bashing other people so they would appear to be knowing more about “Web 2.0″ than the general others. Before this whole “Web 2.0″ thing, I don’t see electrical engineers gather around every other month just to debate on the definition of “Electrical Engineering”, as most of the time, they are in their labs late in the night cracking their heads trying to think of the best ways to cram more transistors on a tiny surface.

Seriously, technology is not Web 2.0 and Web 2.0 is not technology. It is nothing but a yuppie culture that uses technology as a tool. The ones that we really need to celebrate are the engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, etc, that are doing the actual real work of advancing technology. And Singapore, as a country, do not have to feel lose out by not having our own Youtube or Flickr, at least as far as I know, so far the technological research activities are going on in Singapore rather extensively. Singapore has been contributing a lot to the advancement of technology. One of the example is the contribution of I2R (Institute of Infocomm Research - part of A*Star) to the IEEE on the improvement of wireless technology. That, to me, sounds like something that is really worth celebrating than any Web 2.0 site or “rock star”.

A piece of music, even if it doesn’t have an accompanied music video, can still be a very good piece of music. Musicians should never feel lose out for only capable in producing good music but not in producing good music videos, and music listeners should really pay more attention to the music proper, rather than to music videos and MTV.

Only the proper music, is music. So if you are really into music, do concentrate on the music actual.