BusinessWeek on Web 2.0

Here's a good summary of what's at stake with Web 2.0, viewed from a strategic perspective.

Web 2.0 Has Corporate America Spinning - Business Week, June 5, 2006

A lot has changed in the last year. More mashups and mashboards have popped up, and they include certain proprietary elements or protocols to make them more enterprise-friendly.

The key thing to remember is what the Business Week article points out at the end. Brands are owned by the people who use the products. This has always been true, but consumers have in the past been suspending their disbelief in their trusted brands (for a lot of reasons), giving companies more of a chance to influence brand perceptions through advertising. Now, consumers are surrounded by multiple sources of information, opinion and values-based filters -- what I call the Five Forces of CEM -- and so companies now have to compete in a new arena to maintain brand mindshare.

Check out the article!