We are helping to organize a web conference here in Virginia (just outside of DC) that will happen on September 20th. Yesterday, I attended a breakfast roundtable to discuss the event with about 20 other execs and found the brainstorming to be really interesting. We had people from advertising, venture capital, software, and a couple of start-ups. The talk focused on how to put together an event that would have broad appeal while providing valuable take-aways for everyone, and I think we have some great ideas for doing just that.

With such a diverse group speaking openly about trends that are really disrupting every industry, it was clear why the term “Web 2.0″ gets such a rise out of people. Some hate the term because they feel it was immediately hijacked by marketers as another buzzword. Some fear the term either because they associate it with technologies they don’t understand (e.g., AJAX, RSS), techniques they haven’t mastered (e.g., blogging, viral marketing), or just losing control (since the customers seem to be gaining all the power). Some love the term because it means we’re in another dot-com boom so there are exciting new web companies launching every day, with some seeing mind-boggling growth (ever heard of MySpace?).

No matter if you hate, fear, or love the term, everyone seems to agree that there’s little agreement on what “Web 2.0″ really means. I tried to define it back in March, and I understand that O’Reilly will “attempt to clarify” at his $3,300 conference in November. But does it really need a clear definition?

If Web 2.0 represents anything, it’s speed. Just a year ago, few people had heard of Ruby on Rails, YouTube, or Michael Arrington. In less than 12 months, RoR developers are in high demand, YouTube has a bigger audience than network TV, and Michael Arrington is a celebrity. Plus, I’m told that if you don’t know what social networking is, you’re a loser. The only thing we can count on with a Web 2.0 definition is that it will be different in a few months.

Regardless of your interest or motivation, getting a lot of smart people together to talk about what’s happening on the web right now, and how both businesses and consumers can really benefit, seems like a good idea. Hope to see you on September 20th.

More and more, the Viget design team is taking on the arduous task of “customizing” the look of a MySpace page for a client or project. These aren’t new attempts — MySpace users have been trying for a long time to make their pages more their own from a design standpoint.  And, it makes total sense … I mean, isn’t it a nice tie-in for Terrence Wallace’s or Ziggy Marley’s MySpace page to reflect the look of his official site? Sure, no question.

So, where’s the rub?

The problem lies with the fact that MySpace is terribly formatted/coded (nested table after nested table, limited ids and classes) and, therefore, doesn’t lend itself well to design customization. Granted, the original creators would probably argue that they never intended for design customization when they built MySpace; but, hopefully, its new owner (Rupert Murdoch/News Corp) and team already have “clean, customizable design and layout” at the top of their enhancements list.

Thanks to the efforts of fellow MySpace “explorers” like Mike Davidson, workarounds enable users to at least change background colors, header images, content box colors, and fonts, but little else is available in the way of significant enhancement. Sure, you’ll find lots of so-called MySpace templates available out there; but, upon closer inspection, you’ll see that they are all based off of a core group of limited design/code tweaks.

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In today’s Internet age, this seemingly simple question may no longer have a simple answer. The anonymity of the Internet allows users to communicate without fear of retribution and without fear of being labeled an “outsider” in their community. The freedom of anonymous speech is necessary in a true democratic state – from government watchdogs to social critics to spiritual and ethical leaders, society benefits from the free exchange of ideas. However, in some situations, anonymity can be a double-edged sword.

Word of mouth (or ‘buzz marketing’) relies on the power of trust. I trust my friends to have my best interests at heart when they tell me about the new album that came out last week that I should hear. When they tell me to go see a new movie, or try out this great Indian restaurant that just opened, I take their recommendations seriously because I believe that they know me and they know what I like. And, they wouldn’t mislead me.

Now, in the online world of recommendations, reviews, and product evaluations, the high-level seeds of buzz marketing, we never have a face-to-face connection with the person on the other end of the page. This was true even before the Internet age when reviews and the like were only available through consumer magazines with a vested interest in not betraying their subscription base with inaccurate or biased reviews. But, online, it is very hard to tell not only if people are who they say they are, but also why they are saying what they are saying. The anonymity of the Internet seems custom-made for guerilla marketing campaigns, and it is sometimes almost impossible to judge an article’s authenticity in isolation.

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A boomerang is a crafty device invented by the aborigines of Australia having the useful feature of returning to the thrower when properly thrown and its target missed. Of course, if you fail to pay attention, the boomerang could very well come back and hit you. Similarly, failing to catch your exceptions and check your method return variables can also bonk you on the head. Usually the day before release. Friday at 4:45 PM. On the night your friends celebrate your birthday. Without you.

We will ignore try-catch for now since most of our development is in PHP and its API is almost completely procedural. Being a procedural language, pretty much every function has a return value. Some of these are important and some can be occasionally ignored. Which are which?

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I noticed this sign in my suburban DC neighborhood. I presume it refers to home additions, which around here generally means dropping at least $100K to add on to already high-priced homes. For most people, their home is by far their most significant investment.

Does anyone just call a number posted on a pole and ask them to start working on a project of that magnitude anymore? Trash removal, maybe, but home additions? Wouldn’t a nice, short, memorable URL be handy in this case?

In a busy area like DC there’s lots of construction work, but also lots of competition. The good contractors are overworked and struggle to be responsive to new inquiries — a problem since providing accurate price quotes is a time-consuming process that requires real expertise. Filtering out the less valuable, less committed prospects is half the challenge.

Up-and-coming contractors might do great work, but without a book of testimonials and work samples, they struggle to find good opportunities and grow their businesses.

Doesn’t a solid web strategy make sense for both? The established guys can use the web to route, filter, and respond to new sales inquiries. The new guys can market their good work and make a solid first impression. With the right search strategy on the front-end, both can attract lots of prospects. With targeted email marketing on the backend, both could maintain top-of-mind awareness with their contacts. Add solid analytics in the middle and they’ll have the insights needed into how the strategy is working to be able to make smart, cost-effective decisions on how to tweak the strategy.

That’s the great thing about web marketing right now: it’s established enough to drive legitimate business (in some cases, enormous amounts); but, the most effective strategies are still new enough to allow the more aggressive and savvy (not necessarily the more wealthy) companies to make big advances over their competition.

Who knows — maybe that sign was put up 10 years ago … but, of course, back then additions.com was probably available.