WORLD 2.0:SOCIAL NETWORKING IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF WHAT IS TO COME

While the world talks about global warming, presidential politics, the

economy, etc. a revolution continues to take place -- in how the world

communicates.

Not long ago, such conveying of information took place primarily by

individuals watching or listening to other people on TV or radio, through

reading and through face-to-face interaction or conversations on the

telephone. That was about it.

Then came the Internet and e-mail.

Now, there's Web 2.0., a world of user-generated content, interactivity and

social networking with almost limitless opportunity for consumers and

businesses to learn, develop communities and share information through

services such as Facebook and Link-edIn.

But the question on the minds of hundreds of people gathered at the Web 2.0

Expo in San Francisco this week is ''How, as a single user or business, do you

make the best use of these tools?''

Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of Sebastopol-based O'Reilly Media, a

co-sponsor of the conference, equated it to the experience of hiking to the

top of one mountain only to find ''another bigger one beyond.''

''I ask this question 'Do you think we are really done yet?''' he asked the

Web 2.0 Expo audience during his keynote address. ''There's so much to do,''

he continued. ''This is an amazing confluence of technology and opportunity at

a time when we really can change the world -- and there are some big problems

to solve.''

O'Reilly Media coined the phrase Web 2.0 five years ago to describe the

Internet world much as we have it today -- with Web sites that allow people to

easily share videos, photos and information as well as links to other Web

sites.

For some, particularly those who have yet to take advantage of sites such

as LinkedIn.com, it's a matter of trying to catch up to what is going on. The

good news is that one doesn't need to know what an API is to create a Facebook

site and share photos with relatives. These sites are becoming more

user-friendly.

What's also clear is that Web 2.0 offers opportunites that can't be ignored

-- for consumers and businesses -- even in a down economy.

O'Reilly ended his talk by reading the poem ''The Man Watching'' by Rainer

Maria Rilke which talks about how being victorious over small things can make

us small but being ''defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings''

makes us greater.

''Whether you win or lose,'' he encouraged his audience, ''make a

difference.'' And don't be afraid of change.