Ed Yourdon on Web 2.0

One of the most well-known figures of information technology, Ed Yourdon, has taken up blogging (it looks like in April), and seems to have taken a special shine to the web 2.0 phenomenon. Among other activities, he is serving as the guest editor for an upcoming issue of the Cutter IT Journal dedicated to Web 2.0 (see Call for Papers: Cutter IT Journal special issue on Web 2.0), and attending various conferences on the subject, such as Wikimania and WebNext.

One of the side effects of his current obsession with Web 2.0 is an enormous mind-map that he is managing. The current version (v019!) was uploaded on 16 August, and is 6.96 MB of chewy, chocolatey Web 2.0 goodness (although the link on the blog is broken: try here).

Yourdon's Mindmap -- Just One Of 16 Pages! (click to expand)

Yourdon enumerates the recent additions to the mind-map:

[from Web 2.0 mind-map, version V019]

I’ve added several new items to the previous version of the mind-map:

1. I created a new sub-branch of “Examples” on the “Long-Tail” page of the mind-map, and added a link to an interesting article showing how the long-tail concept applies to the appropriate investment of time and energy designing the home-page for a web-site, as compared to the hundreds, or thousands, of other pages on the site.
2. I added a new branch on the “Trends” page, with a link to an article summarizing Gartner’s view of imminent Web 2.0 trends.
3. I added a new sub-branch, entitled “Developing an enterprise Web 2.0 strategy” to the existing branch entitled “Recommended strategies for ‘traditional’ companies,” on the “Business Issues” page of the mind-map, with a link to an interesting article about enterprise Web 2.0 strategies, written by Dion Hinchcliffe, who is chairing an upcoming Web 2.0 conference called The New New Internet (which I’ll be attending). I also added the same link to the “Articles” page of the mind-map.
4. I added another new sub-branch, entitled “A Microsoft perspective on business opportunities for Web 2.0″ to the existing branch entitled “Recommended strategies for ‘traditional’ companies,” on the “Business Issues” page of the mind-map, with a link to a blog entry from Microsoft’s Michael Platt.
5. I added a new sub-branch to the “Reactions and trends within large companies” branch, on the “Business Page,” with a link to a recent blog posting by Sun’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, explaining why he feels it’s so important for everyone in a company, from the CEO on down, to blog about what’s going on, and to facilitate open communications with customers and the marketplace.
6. I added a sub-sub-branch to the “political commentary” sub-branch, within the “Society” branch on the “Intro: What’s It All About?” page. It contains a link to a blog entry that Howard Rheingold describes as “smartmobbing Congressional corruption,” which helps identify and publicize some 1,800 otherwise-hidden “earmarks” that are buried within Congressional funding legislation.
7. On the “Microsoft” sub-branch of the “Big Vendors” branch of the “Products/Vendors” page, I added a link to a page on Microsoft’s Windows Live Spaces site that introduces a new blogging tool called Windows Live Writer. I also added a sub-sub-branch with a link to Computerworld’s review of the product.
8. Also on the “Products/Vendors” page, I added a new branch with a link to a blog describing the top 20 UK Web 2.0 products, as of August 7, 2006.
9. I added a new sub-branch to the “predicting the future is hard” branch, on the Trends page; it’s a link to a blog posting by Steve Borsch, commenting on how one should go about predicting the future of Web 2.0.
10. On a sub-sub-branch of the “Big Vendors/Apple” branch of the “Products/Vendors” page, I added a link to a blog posting claiming that Apple’s forthcoming (spring 2007) operating system, Leopard, will have a wiki server built in, so that intranet groups can quickly and easily create their own wiki. The blog claims that this is part of the detailed Leopard “preview” announcement on Apple’s website, but I was unable to find it for confirmation.

I’ve got about another two dozen Web 2.0-related articles and blog postings to review, plus another 100 unread blog RSS feeds that have arrived during the afternoon; so I’m sure there will be lots more to add. But for now, this will have to do…

A sisyphusian task, trying to keep up with everything being said about Web 2.0, and one that will surely fail... but it may be an interesting artifact for those trying to wrap their mind around it.

But seeing Yourdon, best known perhaps for his work in the 70's and 80's, blogging about Web 2.0 and today's revolution in software is heartening. I will have to track down Ed, and interview him about his perspective on Web 2.0.

Ed will be attending the upcoming New New Internet Conference, here in Tyson's Corner VA, in September, I have been informed. I'm sure he will add a lot to the event.

sponsored by The New New Internet Conference. Mention promo code "Boyd" and get a $50 discount.

tags: ed+yourdon, cutter+IT+journal, the+new+new+internet, web+2.0

Comments

[Ed Yourdon]

Thanks for the kind words, and also for the heads-up about the broken link to the latest version of my Web 2.0 mind-map. I've fixed it, so you can now click on the link and download the PDF file.

[David Tebbutt]

Can Ed's mindmap be shared as a tabbed text or OPML file? OPML would be good, especially if he were to surface it through Grazr.

(I have no connection to Grazr, before you ask.)

[jeneane]

---public service announcement--YAY! Awesome, and truly great to have Ed blogging. Ed, you left our some (any?) good women off your blogroll. BlogHer.org has some great blogrolls categorized. I can send you a list of my favs even. Read us. Love us. Link us.--end public service announcement--