Web 2.0 gets down to business
(Fortune) — Remember where electronic mail was 15 years ago? If you didn’t already have an e-mail address, you probably knew someone who did. And if you were sending and receiving e-mail, you’d probably discovered that it could be a game-changing business tool.
That’s roughly where the services known collectively as Web 2.0 are today. These are sometimes defined as web activities that get more valuable the more people use them.
Social networks like MySpace and Facebook are the most familiar examples, but new Web 2.0 companies you’ve never heard of emerge almost daily, creating what is, in effect, a continuous stream of interlinked data, some of which may be about your company, your business contacts, or even about you.
How can you get started? We surveyed some executives who use Web 2.0 services every day and came up with a few suggestions.