I was first exposed to Daniel Swiecki when I came across his blog. Several months had passed before I noticed that he is still in high school. Someone barely half my age was making intelligent, well-constructed points about technology. Yet, the Internet’s role as an equalizer is one of its greatest strengths. Everyone’s voice is (in theory at least) equal, and the merit of your ideas will make or break you. With that in mind, I asked Daniel if he wouldn’t mind answering a few questions about his thoughts on “version control” for the web.

Daniel, if you don’t mind, start by telling us a little about yourself and your presence on the Internet.

Well, I started blogging when I was 13, with a Blogger blog (which is still up by the way). It wasn’t a tech blog; it was just random events in my life that only my friends read to bring back memories. Then I started going towards a technology/web blog when I launched my Xbox 360 blog. It was also a Blogger, but around this time, I had started web design, so I was editing the templates and studying how the Blogger CMS worked. I moved my blog to Wordpress when I got a free account via Flock. Since then, I’ve moved to my own Host and Domain, and have blogged about Technology and Web news and events.

As a high school student you have a different perspective on industry trends than older bloggers and designers. What do you think you notice that the rest of us might not?

As a teenager, I always have the drive to stay–or at least try to– on the bleeding edge of new web technologies. I also notice that I like to blog about Gaming, because that’s something that all teenage guys are in to (especially me (: ). Of course I get an edge, being a teen, because I can figure out what teens currently want on the web, provide it, and make lots of money. Or even if I currently don’t posses the skills necessary to do whatever it is I want to, I’ll hold on to the idea until a later time.

For any readers who might not be familiar with it, what are the defining elements of Web 2.0?

I see Web 2.0 in two categories: Design/Visual and Technical. The Design bits that define Web 2.0 include lots of whitespace, stars and badges that usually say “Beta!”, rounded corners, and generally intuitive interfaces like Flickr’s. Technical elements include use of XHTML (with separate Javascript and CSS files) and AJAX to use “the web as a platform” to develop applications. Web 2.0 is also about providing free, useful services to people.

You could say that Web 1.0 was the dot-com bubble that saw a lot of Internet companies quickly rise and fall. If Web 2.0 companies are giving away services for free, how are they going to generate revenue and avoid the fate of their predecessors?

When you have a service at your website that is in demand but nobody else has, your website becomes a great advertising space. Advertisers will be dying to get those thousands and thousands of people looking at their ads daily. And many ad services DO go with the sites Web 2.0 look, because they are customizable. Take a look at Adsense for instance. You can make it match your site, as well as give some of your viewers what they may find cool or an interesting product. Many Web 2.0 sites also accept donations. If you like what they’re doing or see that they’re on the verge of going, you can give them a good donation.

What do you think will be the defining elements of Web 3.0?

I think Web 3.0 will be a more professional version of Web 2.0. If you look at many Web 2.0 sites, they look “childish”. For example, take a look at the ZOHO logo. It’s a bunch of blocks with letters on them. I think Web 3.0 is going to be about big companies (Amazon, Google, etc.) switching their websites to AJAX applications in a professional, intuitive, clean way.

What do you see as the catalyst for Web 3.0 becoming popular, and when do you think that will happen?

Web 3.0 is going to take off when:
1.) Easier AJAX tools become available to all web designers [that] are easy AND powerful.
2.) When a major company (Ebay, Amazon, Google) takes it site completely to AJAX.

Any predictions for Web 4.0?

Truth be told, anything could happen. I, for one, like the no click interface.

filed under: Imported Wisdom