After reading Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide: Business thinking and strategies behind successful Web 2.0 implementations
It seems to me that a large portion of what will be Web 3.0 will stand a lot of what caused success in Web 2.0 on it's head - inverting it so that the users gain some dominance. After all, without users, Web 2.0 would not exist - and while it is all well and good to make money while providing a service - the question is how much the users will tolerate. Just as there was a tipping point for success, there may well be a tipping point for failure. Alienate your community and you alienate your business base - keep your community happy and it will stay consistent and grow.
One of the problems with Web 2.0 has been, and continues to be, that it is focused on how very few people or legal entities make money providing services to many people. At some point, the majority of people who are interested in such things may well figure out that Web 2.0 is only about them as much as they allow themselves to be. Somewhere along the line, people may figure out that they are financial pink bunnies to the remote controlled social network - that they are only benefiting casually while others literally cash in on what the masses do. It is no different from traditional business in a sense; in this way social networking businesses are not too different from McDonalds. Lots of people eat at McDonalds (ask any dietician), but few people work there. Even fewer people gain the ability to improve their own positions through working at McDonalds.
It is a little reminiscent of Levitt & Dubner's observation in Freakonomics about crack dealers in the 1980s averaging $3.30 an hour.
So what I see as an integral part of Web 3.0 is rewarding users in ways that go beyond the superficial and hit them in the wallet - such as the affiliate success that helped Amazon.com become dominant. Social networks, as they are being monetized now, seem to disdain any method of users creating financial streams - and yet that is how today's Internet was built, with many content creation models based around advertising revenue and affiliate links. Shouldn't social networking sites also have such an economy surrounding them? For the record, Zazzle is already using Social Networks in such a manner. Check my Facebook profile.
Web 3.0 will have to permit users to generate revenue as well - not just the big corporations, but the individuals and SMEs. And that will require large corporations to allow for that in their business models, staying with what made them large in the first place. While Google's motto may be 'Don't be evil', the Web 3.0 motto for corporations could be, 'Don't be too greedy'. Users may be revenue streams, but if you want their participation you may want to consider permitting the users their own revenue stream.
A business that gets paid together... stays together.
And if you're wondering about 'x', well... so am I.
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