Lately I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on the various websites and services collectively referred to as “Web 2.0.” If you’re not familiar with the term, popular sites like MySpace and YouTube fall into the category but I feel the Web 2.0 shift really began when sites like Amazon and eBay began to allow for reviewing of material and sellers. What this did, in essence, is provided a means for site visitors to provide content and thus created a venue for conversation about the subject matter. A true evolutionary step for the web from simplistic content provision by the website ‘owner,’ the Web 2.0 movement has allowed users to create groups of like-minded individuals, leverage the thoughts and opinions of others, and is quickly becoming a representation of community in digital form.

Sites like MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook, Flickr, Tribe, and Delicious quickly built on this advancement, allowing people to share content beyond just thoughts and feelings about a subject. Now users became able to share and determine the subject matter for discussion and Web 2.0 was in full swing. Socializing, coupled with technologies like instant messaging, became a value tied with the intrinsic need of individuals to socialize. This stirs up some questions for me. Where will the value of socializing through the web reach its peak in the manner the previous iteration of web technology did? What will be the next level?

Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, is a huge proponent of using Maslow’s Hierarchy for defining and even anticipating human behavior. His blog is in my blogroll and his application of Maslow’s theories to subjects such as employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and financial satisfaction have deeply impacted my thoughts about business and the internet. I suggest reading his “Jobs, Career, Calling” post when you get a minute not only for the content but for how he applies Maslow to the subject.

In short, the first incarnation of the web allowed for communication and provision of information through websites unidirectionally satisfying the users’ need for information or services related to Maslow’s more basic needs.

Below is a diagram from Wikipedia:



What would be called primitive needs are at the bottom and at the top are needs more deeply associated by us with our existence, spirit, development etc. If we observe the direction of the web and the kinds of characteristic needs it has and is currently providing and apply them to this hierarchy, I feel we can forecast, generally, the direction it’s heading in.

If we look at the lowest level, the physiological needs, and we think about how the web satisfies them or compliments them one major example pops into my head: The Success of Internet Porn. I read a tidbit somewhere recently that for every 1 page of non-pornographic content on the web there are 5 pages that are pornographic. For me that is an obvious indicator of our drive to have the web satisfy one of our basest needs and it was one of the first! Some even believe that if it weren’t for internet porn at the outset of the internet that there wouldn’t have been enough user support to aid its growth and it may simply have become a fad rather than a revolution—in effect, the satisfaction of one of our basest needs for sex became the base or foundation for what the internet is today.

Now, that’s not to say we’re all a bunch of perverts, it simply evolved that the technology and content of the internet most easily adapted to a base physiological need and through its exploitation became successful.

The next mini-phase we experienced in internet development became sites such as Monster, Buy, eBay, Amazon, and Google. While they are all very different, each of them focuses on providing a means to get something. Whether material or informative, they and sites like them support our senses of security. On Monster and other job related sites, we’re able to search for work—a substantial need in our society. Buy, eBay, and Amazon provide secure means to obtain the goods we need to support our lifestyle and maintain our material needs. Google and other search engines organize and provide us with information pulled from pages all over the web allowing us to feel secure in our ability to gather information quickly about a subject.

However, the first incarnations of these sites were cold and lacked a sense of belonging. eBay, Buy and Amazon and countless others developed review sections associated with the products they sold. Now users could discuss the pros and cons of their purchase and be able to feel connected with the rest of the purchasing community. Other incarnations of these first types of community sites were Tribe and Yelp where people could post their opinions on restaurants, businesses and events and share them with others.

Similarly, our needs for belonging and love manifested themselves in online dating and social networking sites. MySpace, FaceBook, eHarmony and the like allowed us to talk personally, share our thoughts with others and develop relationships both on and off the web. By satisfying the needs for love and belonging, the line between the digital and the real world has become blurred. Relationships begun on dating sites quickly turn into offline dates and in many cases have positive impacts on the happiness of the individuals. MySpace and social networking has become a forum in which friends and family can connect and share images, videos, audio, interests, other friends, you name it.

The review aspects of product and service provision coupled with the sharing of user generated content among friends, businesses, family are the pillars of today’s Web 2.o. Rooted in our needs for love and belonging, they have provided the foundation for more complex systems of sharing and self-promotion such as blogs and other Content Management Systems (CMS).

The value of blogs and CMSs are only now reaching the mainstream forefront. Still very much in infancy, how blogs can be used to satisfy our esteem oriented needs is beginning to come to light. Sharing our thoughts and opinions is deeply rooted in our existence and in supporting our happiness. Blogs are being used to show potential employers a deeper side to candidates, becoming a place to display confidence and personality through periodic posts. Changes in individuals and other more complex human experiences that cannot be captured through previous sharing methods as easily are blogged into relative permanence for others to read and comment on. Interests are shared through links to other blogs or sites. A picture of the person’s personality is shown and respect for others and understanding begins to be developed.

CMSs have the potential for something a little more abstract than ordinary blogs. There being so much content on the web, users are seeking ways in which to manage it. CMS solutions to the issue of “too much stuff” provide a picture of what the user chooses to have and doesn’t and how they choose to organize and display it for others. It becomes another way for users to share their personality and how it develops over time. Much more complex than providing one off reviews that exist only in one point in time!

I feel there is somewhat of a gray area currently between the need stages of love and belonging and esteem and promotion. Many review sites, for example, have rating systems for their reviewing users. These rating systems have the tendency to inspire the reviewer (or seller in the case of eBay) to rise to the top and keep their rating at a high level. This sort of functionality too, effectively associates with our sense of self esteem and can be linked to a higher order of needs.

Since we’re still in the infancy of blogging and “personality sharing” on the web, I feel we have a long way to go yet before we truly reach the next level. But a long way on the internet comes quickly, so given its history mapped to the satisfaction of human needs, how will the internet enable us to embody the beliefs, opinions, and values we each have? I think the transparency into personality is a start but simply sharing our personality with others doesn’t necessarily allow us to live our lives in alignment with our values. It does allow us to be aware of the thoughts and beliefs of others and come in contact with suggestions for action those individuals have. This in turn allows us to take on those actions in our own lives and thus aid in our own development and life’s path, however.

Another direction I see the web taking is based on the provision of content related directly to the values of the individual. Products, services, information, other users, opinions and so on will be catered to the web profile of the individual based on their buying habits, blog information and even email communication. Google appears to be moving in this direction, particularly through their tracking of user data for the provision of targeted advertisements. I think true self-actualization by the internet for users though, will probably be the development of individual values and goals being incorporated into current frameworks. Much the same way that reviews became a means for individuals to begin feeling a sense of belonging, an association of values and goal facilitation to the users’ internet experience may bring the internet to that next level. It has the potential to become an incarnation in which it becomes less of a mashup of generic information, services, opinions and personalities but becomes a tool that caters directly—in every way you experience the web—to the values, goals and even dreams you have in your own life.

If you have any penchant for business, or even if you don’t, take a look at Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne. It provides a fascinating perspective on competition and how one can break through conventional definitions of the market (or paradigm) around them. I’m a big fan of anything that allows us to view things from a different perspective and pushes us to define—and challenge—conventional boundaries.

Blue Ocean Strategy does just that by suggesting methods of definition of particular domains and analyzing which characteristics can be minimized and which can be amplified in order to create—what the authors refer to as “uncontested marketspace.”

Truly worthy of the national bestseller’s list, Blue Ocean Strategy further promotes principles and tools to be able to create conversational discourse about new definitions of domains so they are relative to current situations. I find this fascinating for the business thinker as well as for the ordinary Joe perhaps conflicted by their own stasis or direction.

It looks like the inevitable has fallen upon me and I’ve been anointed into the world of the blog. As excited as this makes me, I am somewhat nervous as I don’t believe I’ve ever written in such an organized and officious manner. I look forward to adding my thoughts, recommendations and blips here.