I just finished reading my colleague Allan Benamer's anti-Web 2.0 post [1] over at his excellent blog, Confessions of a Nonprofit IT Director [2]. He aptly points out that there isn't a technology in the world that can replace a case manager. That, in fact, the basic technologies deisgned to create EFFICIENCIES will do more for a case manager than any Web 2.0 widget ever will.
Allan. I totally agree with you (and also think that Second Life [3] is kind of weird, though I'm trying to overcome that prejudice! But really, paying real money for a virtual house? I don't get it.)
But I digress. Though I agree with Allan 100%, I found myself, at the same time, wanting to stick up for Web 2.0. Like Web 2.0 was my little sister getting picked on at the playground or something.
Don't get me wrong. I hate hype. When "Web 2.0" made its way into the popular lexicon, I rolled my eyes and said all the snarky things I could. I lived in San Francisco when the dot com boom began its rise. I remember that the only thing that matched the overinflated hype of the time were the overinflated egos of all the dot com employees. So no, I don't think that "Web 2.0" is this sector's savior.
But Web 2.0 does matter.
Beyond the fact that a lot of Web 2.0 tools are way cool and fun, there are some real reasons to look serieously at this trend in technology and start figuring out WHERE IT IS APPRORPIATE to use in your organization:
1. The Internet is about to become ubiquitous. About might be a little strong. But within a few years, Internet will be available and cheap nearly everywhere in the US. Municipal wireless projects are picking up steam all over the country.
2. Which means that they way people connect to the Internet will change. "Getting Online" won't mean lugging your gigantic 7 pound laptop around and searching out a place to connect. It will mean smaller, more nimble devices that are always connected to the Internet. Your phone will likely be the place you connect to the Internet most often. It also means that geo-tracking with RFID and a whole host of other internet-dependent devices will explode.
3. So with Internet everywhere, and all kinds of devices available to connec to it, people can use the Internet to create and send information even faster than they do now.
4. Which means that the Information age we're in will get EVEN BIGGER. (Which, quite frankly, makes me a little tired. I mean, I know nothing now. I'll know even less in a few years. But that's another post.) With all this information floating around, our jobs as nonprofits will fundamentally shift. Outside of the direct service function many of provide (actually putting food in the hands of those who need it), we will need to rethink the communications and education roles we play. If anyone can get information about the issue you work on at any time, and they can see every org filling that role, what is your value add?
5. Enter Web 2.0. In many cases, the Web 2.0 tool set is small, multi platform and agile. Which means that it's well suited for the way in which we will soon connect to the Internet. And, in many cases, these tools are designed to build communities who help each make sense of the alarming amount of information out there.
And that's why Web 2.0 matters. More than copiers. Which have, admittedly, gotten very cool, Allan.