Web2.0’s value comes from the user. The engine of value is constructed through an architecture of participation. User generated content, mashups, social networking – when done right, get better and create more USER value at an exponential rate. This is nothing new. We’ve been saying this for the many years. And companies are starting and being sold based on generating this kind of value. But what hasn’t changed? The business model.

Back at The Future of Web Apps earlier this year it became obvious that the dichotomy of the web as a business model hasn’t been solved. There still is a huge chasm between user value and business value. There’s plenty of innovation around what the web is delivering – but very little innovation on how money is made.

I know. You’re thinking I’m completely ignorant of all the innovation regarding contextual advertising, search advertising, etc. But take a critical view of these models. They are just more targeted ways of delivering billboards and coupons. It’s better than it has been, for sure. More relevant advertising is better for a company and for the consumer. But this is incremental change.

BusinessWeek walks through the online ad models of Google, Yahoo, and niche players. And as TechCrunch states, it’s true, more competition should generate better pricing and innovation. But it’s still about inventory, views, and clicks.

Most simply, advertising is NOT user-centered. At its best, it is about companies that want to achieve certain business goals, agencies that can help create campaigns to achieve those goals, and media agencies that can help place the campaign in the most efficient (and sometimes most effective) places. It isn’t about solving consumer needs, creating more consumer value, and generating incremental profit from that value.

There is potential for true innovation of the radical variety. Imagine a model that transforms the strengths of advertising into a user-focused model. Imagine we coupled the power of an ad agency, a media agency, a Google or Yahoo, and a network of niche web developers that actually generated profit for clients rather than expenses? The product of the coupling would be new communication tools, products, services, or social glue that solved customer needs in way that the customers themselves would pay for it.

More to come on this topic for sure. If you’re up for answering the call to create this with me drop me an email. Let the user-centered revolution begin.

I’m in the middle of playing with a service called Dapper. As I understand it at the moment, the app allows me to click elements on a web page–and works best if there a few similarily constructed ones–and use the information as building blocks. In other words, it’s a non-programmer interface for the data of the web–which then can be remixed, mashed, and grouped. It’s roll your own API.

So what’s the big deal? I’m not sure there is a big deal in that anything I’m doing with the service can already be done hacking the html, xhtml, or xml and writing code around it. However, it does democratize API building by inviting more people to hack the web. But here’s my cut on it: Nothing I create using this will be as good as a novice to expert could make using Perl, PHP, Ruby, Python, etc.

However, there is value to this–and in the Long Tail frame of mind, what publishing dapplications might do is lead real developers to create more robust and usable apis. Dapper could be a discovery engine for api demand–which then developers can use to create actual solutions for.

I may have more thoughts on this as I play with the service. But for now, if nothing else, it’s a wicked creative idea, if nothing else.

I’ve been alternating between fiction and non the last couple of months, churning through more business and innovation books than I care too.

The current non-fiction book: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. I’m generating my own take on all this business. Anderson makes some good points–but I think he’s omitting a big part of the story. But more on that later. I’m conducting some research to test my hypothesis–with some interesting results early on.

In the fiction world I’ve just finished The Geographer’s Library and have started in on David Mitchell’s latest, Black Swan Green: A Novel.

Prior to reading any more, go here, and click on the Fresh Experiences link and watch the entire video.

If Nintendo doesn’t find massive success with the Wii console then we are a sad lot. Revolutionizing the console through the interface–it’s brilliant–and it’s both behind and ahead of its time.

I remember when the first VR games came out–big stand up machines in big city arcades and theme parks… I thought that was going to be the future… but they were too clunky, too expensive, and all together didn’t have very compelling applications. Now there is the Wii and a new form of virtual reality has arrived–and it isn’t virtual.

Personal technology and applications are moving from the bi-polar online-offline schism–to a world of analog–a world of gradients rather solid fields… a world of dials rather than switches… an organic rather than simulated world. Technology isn’t so scary anymore… and it’s becoming more integrated into our daily lives. When I was in junior high, very few people in my age group could type faster than 15-20 wpm… I wonder what the 14 year-old average wpm is now?

The Wii is emblematic of what is happening with our culture–and it’s the healthy part of integrating technology. It’s a matter of more healthily bridging human behavior and technology. Yes–even in gaming. I think, after watching the video, if the Wii really delivers that experience, the concept of gaming will radically shift. Learning button presses and thumb jockeying won’t suffice.

I think the most interesting aspect of Wii is the possibility. Imagine the social games that can be enabled through the interface–not just combative, but cooperative. Gaming becomes a social rather than anti-social pastime.

Enter the Wii zardy. You can have your Xbox 360 and Playstation 3… I’m waiting for the true breakthrough gaming.

The best image a speaker has been able to create during a presentation comes from Linda Stone. Her image: email is the wood chipper (think Fargo) of attention. Her main point–think about applications, services, products, as improving quality of life.

Imagine inventorying everything you use during the day through that lense.

I’m taking reams of notes–and it’ll take time to synthesize all of it. There are definitely some themes emerging–some insightful, some misguided. I’ll be making some more comments throughout the week.

Announcements of interest this morning:
Clay Shirky and creating the Patterned Language
Eventful and Demand and an API
Flex 2.0 — Ajax meets Flash

Plum and APIs: collect and share anything

In a break right now. The breakout sessions this afternoon haven’t been as good as the morning sessions–which were excellent.

Ray Ozzie started it off with quotes like:

RSS is DNA of wiring the web
Connecting tissue between web sites
Composite applications
Closer to the user, the more agile in solving the problem
Weaving together a composite application
An application bus
The user weaves together a larger application

And coming to the question: Where is the clipboard of the web?
His answer? WindowsLive Clipbook

It basically allows you to drag, cut, copy and paste information from the web… and it’s smart enough to understand the “data behind the data.” Basically it exposes atomic web data in the most discrete meaningful chunks. So if you “clip” an address on a site you can drag it to your outlook and save the contact info, etc.

My take? It’s AJAX meets RSS.

Then Jeff Han did his magic with the multi-touch screen. Awesome stuff. Key takeaways?
A multi-user collaborative interface.
An intuitive and powerful way to interact with an infinite desktop.
Zooming and manipulating objects on screen is magical.

My take: This will be the new musical instrument, mixing, and production tool.

That’s it for now. More later.