Web 2.0’s openness ideals died while its self-promotion practices intensified

Evidence

While the term Web 2.0 seems dated, many of its guiding principles are more important today than they were in 2005. Others have virtually disappeared. Web 2.0 celebrated developments like open-source software and “interoperability,” the ability to port data from one site to another. These ideals seem quaint in the context of closed networks like Facebook, proprietary formats like the Apple App Store, and highly regulated environments like mobile carriers. Even sites like Twitter, which once encouraged third-party development, now limit access to their data. But entrepreneurship, along with self-presentation techniques like micro-celebrity, self-quantification, and self-promotion, are more salient today than they were in the mid-2000s. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 23

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to arguments about the enclosure of the open web and platform consolidation — e.g., Morozov, Zuboff. — connects to: Web 2.0 celebratory claims faded into structural critiques — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 47; Web 2.0 openness ideology serves corporate profit over individual benefit — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 640; Web 2.0 inherited DIY culture while stripping its radical politics. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 96 (+4 more)
• CANDY: The irony that openness ideals of Web 2.0 vanished into walled gardens while its self-branding practices thrived is a tidy, shareable observation.

Broader Connections

• Web 2.0 openness ideology serves corporate profit over individual benefit #expands (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 640
• Web 2.0 inherited DIY culture while stripping its radical politics. #expands (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 96
• Web 2.0 severed its DIY lineage by abandoning punk critique of labor #expands (0.72)