Web 2.0 matters across industries and markets...not just on the Internet

The premise of The Industry Standard when it launched in 1998 was that the Internet would enable profound changes across all aspects of business across all market sectors.  

Yesterday Jon Udell wrote a blog post about 2 industries that have yet to dive into the new Web 2.0 world.  These are just a small sample of all the businesses that don't know a revolution is upon them, and, once again, technology is about to enable profound change to everything everywhere.  

Jon talks about a vision for the airline industry which could transform by a peer-based booking process.  It could allow people to hop from local airport to local airport in a sort of air taxi system.  Similarly, he noted that the energy sector could apply some of the on-demand efficiencies we've come to depend on for many other systems in the technology space.


Just as in it was in 1998, the media and communications industries were early to figure out how to capitalize on the new technology, and the excitement probably sounded like echo chamber noise until companies like Schwabb and Wal-Mart jumped into the game threatening the pure plays.  

Could it be true that we're about to watch another explosion of businesses that figure out how to leverage the new technology platform?  How will Virgin Airlines and Nike utilize peer-to-peer concepts, user-generated content and participation models, syndicated and distributed revenue streams, and data mashups?

Or will some new pure plays come in and challenge the now old school business models to become the new Amazons, easyJets and Yahoo!'s? 

If history can teach us about the future, both cases will be true.

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