Like it or not, the world is changing.  Internet is becoming an important factor in our lives.  Ideas are being shared across countries.  Whether they like this company or not, it is no longer determined by that particular company anymore.  Everybody has equal say, just like a company which has the money to broadcast through various medias.

Companies have a certain fear inside them when they are thinking of mixing with the Internet arena.  They are afraid of joining the social media, just in case they might attract negative feedback.  They feel secure controlling their own website which has no communication with the world.  They don’t deal with Digg, Delicious, Facebook and probably not even producing RSS feeds for RSS readers to subscribe to.

Only companies which are grown from or for the Internet, will be very proactive about it.  Such as Dell, Sun, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and even HP have all taken the step into the Internet.  These are mainly US companies.  What about the Japanese companies?  We seldom see most of them doing such thing as they are very brand conscious and may want to work towards conservative in the Web 1.0 world.

When I say 1.0, I mean it is a one-way communication.  This way, it doesn’t allow feedback, and also don’t allow a conversation to happen.

2.0 means a two-way communication.  It allows two parties to communicate, and thus creating a conversation.  That’s how I view Web 2.0 is all about.  Using the Web, to create a conversation with the visitors.

It is just a matter of time, when the conservative brands will start to roar back in the Internet.  The Internet is spreading the idea very quickly that it is the new media, and it is the most affordable way.

Talking about affordability of the new media.  Multi-national companies are very much willing to spend more money to the expensive agencies in return of “quality” and “reliability”.  Many of these expensive agencies are just doing the same job as the low-budget agencies.  It’s not so impressive to me after all.

If only the companies are willing to embrace open-source software, those proprietary software is quoted at such an expensive price that the Internet is just another expensive tool similar to television or radio.

Whether the companies are willing to embrace Web 2.0 or not, it voices down to the management’s comfort zone.

Yes, it may create trouble for the companies when negative feedback from the visitors voice out and spread.  But the thing is that these kind of feedback is already there.  Just do a google search and you will find them all there.

The point is that the companies must embrace those feedback, and improve.

In fact, Web 2.0 is all about making your company stronger and better than before.  In the past, there may have a lot of hidden trade secrets of the companies’ products and services.  They are so used to hidding those secrets that they will feel insecure being exposed.

But what’s the point since the web is already there talking about you?

Just think about it.

image credit: bensheldon