Minnebar Takeaway-Web 2.0 is not a business model, but maybe it is?

It was nice to hear that re-iterated at Minnebar yesterday. The panelists during the "State of tech in the State" were refreshingly honest. They pointed out the need for business plans and that simply building a service to be acquired by one of the big three was not a wise direction. The alpha geek in the middle even got props from the crowd when he stated that he was sick of social/ user generated content sites.

Although I do generally agree with the fact that social software is overblown and that the roll-up business model of being acquired by a larger corporation is a failing one; I am not willing to say web 2.0 is not a business model.

Web 2.0 sites almost always require a email address. Plus often they create gigantic databases of user data regarding the use of the service. Data is worth something.....email addresses of tech influencers are definitely worth something. I wonder how many of these web 2.0 deals are more or less simply for access to the user data?

Final thoughts regarding my first Minnebar:
Apple is king amongst tech developers
Coffman Union is a deadzone for T-Mobile
Smartphone/handheld computing development is the future (android, iphone)
Drupal is the logical next step after Wordpress.
Really cool shit is happening in the Enterprise but its behind the firewall and essentially unheard of.

I skun out after the state of tech talk....turns out I can't handle being trapped in small rooms with poor ventilation and tons of latent heat from laptops. Seriously you could have heated an entire city block with the heat coming off all these laptops. I shudder at the amount of power consumption involved with tech conferences.

For a more indepth write up on some of the panel talks head over to Technology Evangelist, Ed has done a fine job of summarizing.

http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2008/05/minnebar_state_of_th.html