So this is Web 2.0: create ways for users to not just post content, but create it on your site.

Web 1.0 (or, The Web for us old timers) used the traditional publishing model. I created my content, built my site with it, and people would visit, hopefully.

At best, the whole "user-contribution" concept was present in sites like GeoCities. Most people had web pages off their ISPs, their colleges, or their geek-friends' web servers. Very few people collaborated, and those that did were usually very close-knit.

Before the Internet there were bulletin boards. They could span any topic (including illegal ones) and they did host 'user-contributed content.' However, this was all text conversation.

"This rules."

"No, it blows."

"You suck."

With the Internet came a global bulletin board: (ab)UseNet. Each node's news admin could select which newsgroups to subscribe to. Some might have only technical groups, others might include some social discussions as well.

Still, with the exception of binary posting group, it was still text.

"You really don't get it, do you?"

"I do, I just get it more than you do."

The good thing about most of (ab)UseNet: the erudition was higher, even when flaming one another.

And, with The Web, bulletin boards came back into the fore. Nowadays, you can either download your own software for free to run your forum or find places to host it for you, for the privilege having their ads pasted over your sites.

But the content is still text, with some sites hosting static imagery. See http://www.polykarbonbbs.com/http://www.polykarbonbbs.com/ for some very pretty amateur art.

However, that's different with Web 2.0. Here, the emphasis is on collaboration, on being able to 'give' or 'contribute' in small chunks. Rather than me the single person being responsible for my own hermetic structure of content, it's lots of little chunks of stuff here, bits there.

The magic is making the glue porous enough for all these little attachment points, yet strong enough to hold them all together (as well as the standard requirements for performance, security, convenience, etc.)

So, what's this blog? Very 1.0.