The blogosphere can sometimes sound like an echo chamber: an idea or issue is picked up and discussed and becomes a "meme".

So when "Web 2.0" became frequently used it was natural that it would become a conference.

So what is Web 2.0? Evelyn Rodriguez describes Web 2.0 as the web as a participatory platform.

Tim O’Reilly, one of the inventors of the term, sets out to define the term in this article and provides a useful meme map. He concludes by listing the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models.