During the panel discussion on “Game-Changing Technologies” at the recent Photo Marketing Association, Tradeshow and Conference, I brought up the point that Web 2.0, in fact, doesn’t really change any game after all. My position was that most theories in marketing developed in the last fifty years studied only one sample audience: the baby boomers. Gen-Xers are the forgotten generation, hardly paid attention to and always assumed to follow in the steps of the baby boomers. With the emergence of Generation Y, the economic balance of the world is shifting and what is considered to be “new technologies” are in fact “everyday technologies”.

Many believe that the game is changing but in fact, our old assumptions and initial theories were indeed flawed to begin with.

Deep down, humans haven’t changed. We all have the same needs, desires and anxieties as before. Whether we are participating in Web 3.0, Web 2.0, or Web 1.0, it’s important to address these needs as opposed to just jumping on the same bandwagon as the Jones’s.

In my next posting, I will argue that the term “Web 3.0” should never come to be. Stay tuned.