I'm Not your Pal, Buddy: Silicon Valley WebGuild vs O'Reilly Media

The WebGuild of Silicon Valley is calling out Tim O'Reilly for placing pressure on Google and other guild sponsors. According to a recent article written by the guild's Daya Barren, "O'Reilly contacted [friends within Google] and asked them to demand that WebGuild change the name of [their] event and conference and to cease supporting WebGuild."

While Barren goes on to accuse O'Reilly of orchestrating an "old boy's network" and trying to systematize knowledge as "the domain of the privileged", I can't help but think about all of the O'Reilly published authors who write to dispel proprietary models of information via open standards. In essence, I don't think O'Reilly as an organization is an evil empire, but I do believe it is a business with a few million dollars invested in the name "Web 2.0"

THE BUSINESS OF NAMES
What's in a name? Three years ago I met a man in Whistler BC who squatted on several domains in the late nineties and managed to self-fund an entire company and a chalet home with the proceeds raised. That was when marketers believed that only real words could hold meaning for consumers. Now, companies like Google, Flickr and Jooku are paving the way for creative nomenclature. While I can see O'Reilly's obvious branding investment in "Web 2.0", I can't see why WebGuild would want to jeopardize sponsorships to keep a name that has become synonymous with someone else's conference.

Web 2.0 may have been a decent name two years ago, but it's become watered down and overused. The 2.0 era is supposed to be built on the idea that the user is an active producer in shaping a participatory web, but somewhere we've lost our way.

While I really enjoy WebGuild's newsletter and tips, I think that rather than fighting for a name that will probably fade out in a year or two anyways, they should take a page out of the Green Peace whale naming playbook and gain recognition for a term coined by and for the people. All hail Mr Splashy Pants!

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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Rsquared said:

You're bang on about the branding problem the Web 2.0 Expo will face moving forward as the term continues to loose relevancy. This subject came several times last week during the expo.
Maybe the 2.0 gets dropped... 2009 or 2010? The start of a new decade seems like a nice time for a re-branding campaign.

Posted at 08:02 PM, on April 28 2008

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I'm Not your Pal, Buddy: Silicon Valley WebGuild vs O'Reilly Media

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