My friend Robert and I have been discussing the merits and drawbacks of Web 2.0 technologies in the comments section of a couple of my recent posts. I’m buying into it whole hog, while he has some pretty severe reservations about the whole operation. He makes some excellent points, but besides dabbling in Myspace, I wonder how much of the Web 2.0 experience he’s had. In that vein, I’d like to challenge Robert and any other skeptics out there to dive in and take part in the 27things project.

I first read about Learning 2.0 and kcls27things a couple of days ago when those two tags started popping up on Technorati. The program is designed by the King County Library System in Washington state and modeled on a similar program created by a librarian in Charlotte, NC. Their goal is to get the KCLS staff up to snuff on some basic Web 2.0 technologies (Blogger, del.icio.us, Technorati, Flickr, etc.) in order to enrich their interactions with patrons. But the program is an excellent, step-by-step introduction to the world of Web 2.0 that can be used by anyone — not just KCLS staff.

The program is unfolding as I type this. The 27things blog is updated two or three times a week, and each post details one of the 27 steps. The posts themselves tend to be very basic, but within each post, there are external links to some excellent sources — podcasts, tutorials, and wikis — that delve deeper into each topic.

What’s great about how they’ve set it up is that each step only takes about 10 minutes to complete. Of course you can take more time exploring and playing, but to get a flavor of what’s out there, you only need about 10 minutes a day to get started. So far, they’ve covered blogging, RSS feeds, Myspace, Flickr, del.icio.us, and Library Thing (similar to aNobii). And while these technologies and sites might seem like second nature to a lot of us, there is still a large population (the majority?) of folks out there who don’t have a clue about them.

Besides librarians, I can see the benefit of the 27things program for all kinds of educators, parents, and older folks who keep hearing the Web 2.0 buzzwords (blog, tag, myspace, etc.) and want to learn more about it. And for Robert, once you get more of a taste of what’s out there, you might start to come around to my way of thinking (not holding my breath, though, buddy).

I’m starting this post a little late tonight because I’ve spent the last few hours playing around with a new Web app I found on the lifehack blog today. It’s called aNobii, and it’s an online database designed to help you manage, track, and share your reading library. Apparently there are other sites like aNobii, but this is the first I’ve learned about them. I remember a site a long time ago (the name escapes me) that let users list their books and swap them with other users (which is a feature in aNobii, as well), but it didn’t have the levels of functionality that aNobii does.

How it works: you enter your books, either by ISBN or title, and they are added to your “shelf.” You can make your shelf public in order to start discussions, get recommendations, and meet like minded people. Or you can choose to have your shelf remain private, though I’m not sure why you’d do that. The community has a very diverse, international flavor, and it would be a shame not to take advantage of that.

Once I signed up, I started grabbing armfuls of books from the other room and entering them in the database. It took me about 45 minutes to enter 100+ books. There is also an option to import your existing book list from other sources. You can assign ratings, add comments, and specify if you have finished the books or not. The interface is intuitive and fast — one of the fastest dynamic Web sites I’ve ever used. And speed is key here, because aNobii’s core audience is going to be folks with hundreds of books they’ll want to upload and share.

Once you get your books on your shelf, the social networking aspect of the site comes into play. You can see how many other users have the same books or similar shelves as you do. You have access to discussions about your books and targeted recommendations based on the content of your shelf. And, as I alluded to above, you can designate certain of your books for trading.

Because I just signed up this evening, I haven’t had a chance to try out the trading feature. But it works like this: users create Wish Lists of books they want to read, and aNobii matches the books on your list with books that other users have designated for trading. I’m not really sure how it’s a trade unless you’re trading for money. I think this feature needs some refining before it’s really viable (the very young community needs to grow, too).

Another cool feature of the Wish List portion of the site is how aNobii allows you to customize the Amazon referral links. You can choose between all of the different international Amazon stores, and you can specify which currency to display prices in. For example, I have the Japanese, British, Canadian, and American Amazon stores listing prices in US Dollars for books on my wishlist. When I’ve purchased items from Amazon UK and Amazon Canada in the past, I realized what a pain it is to convert the currency. So I think this is a welcome feature.

Overall, aNobii looks like a very promising Web 2.0 app. I’m a pretty big bibliophile. I have a degree in English, and I worked in a book store for seven years. aNobii was pretty much made for me, and it looks like I’ll be spending even more time there in the next few days.

If you’re interested, you can visit my shelf and be amazed at how many books I own and haven’t read.

While doing research for my post the other night, I came across this awesome, Web 2.0-ish repository for online flash games called Kongregate. According to their FAQ, the site is still in heavy development, but some of the features for developers who host their games on Kongregate seem pretty exciting.

For example, the site offers weekly and monthly contests for developers with the highest-rated games and monthly referral contests for users who generate traffic for them. Plus, Kongregate offers ad revenue sharing for ads served on developers’ game pages. It seems like an innovative business model that I haven’t seen applied to online gaming until now.

Business aside, the games I’ve played so far have been top notch. This evening I played Bowmaster Prelude, a strategy game that involves a whole bunch of arrows, and Red, an update of the classic Missile Command. Both were incredibly well done and very fun to play. And so far, there are a few hundred other games on the site to explore.

If you enjoy killing time playing Flash games in your browser, I highly recommend you check out Kongregate.com.

The other day, I mentioned a particular idea in this article by Joshua Porter at Bokardo: Everything is beta. In his terms, he means that his blog is an arena where unrefined or partial thoughts can gel into more cohesive ideas and arguments. I’ve been thinking a lot about that idea this week, and I think that this concept can be applied to everything everything and not just to blogging.

Traditionally, a beta release was a step in the release cycle of software. When the developers of a particular piece of software decided to stop adding new features, they would release a beta candidate for users outside of their development group to kick the tires and make sure everything was working properly. With the advent of the open source movement and the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, a more collaborative, dynamic publishing platform for applications surfaced, and some companies chose to make the software release cycle transparent, leaving their applications in a state of perpetual beta.

Google’s Gmail is a great example of this. Gmail is a fully functional application for the Web, but Google constantly adds new features and refines existing ones. They’ve had the “beta” tag on the Gmail site for years, but the service isn’t unfinished or unpolished. With Gmail, Google has skipped the traditional model of software release and acknowledged that their application will continue to evolve and grow. Gmail will never be finished, and because of the capabilities of Web technology, it never has to be.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. Life is in a state of perpetual beta release, too. Think about who you were a year ago and think about who you are now. Chances are you don’t think of yourself as Me 1.0 and Me 2.0. More likely, you see yourself as the same person now as you were then but with new experiences: Me_beta.

So, how can some of the themes of Web 2.0 help your Life 2.0 in its state of perpetual beta (bullet points are borrowed from this excellent article by Tim O’Reilly)?

1. Trusting users as co-developers
Now more than ever before, humans are constantly connected to each other. We’ve got cell phones and text messages, emails and blogs, and a plethora of Web applications created to keep up the conversation. (I’m looking at you Myspace.) As you interact with people, you learn and grow in ways you never could on your own. So don’t shy away from these services. Start participating and change the folks you come in contact with as much as they’ll change you.

2. Software above the level of a single device
Don’t be limited by one track. For example, I’ve got an English degree, and I’ve managed to become a Web developer. Specialization is still necessary, but let yourself become conversant in other disciplines. Become cross-browser compliant!

3. Lightweight user interfaces
At its most basic, Google is a logo and a search box. But beneath that simple surface is a devastatingly complex core. Translation: don’t be lured in by the trappings of the superficial. Look beneath the surface of things for their value. And conduct yourself in the same way. Be direct. Be simple. And be amazing.

4. The Perpetual Beta
This one is simple: try new things. You are you. That is your core service. But you should continually add features. Develop a love of French cinema. Learn how to sail. Start lifting weights. Or, in a business context, voluntarily add skills to your basic skill set. The beta testing of your life should continue until you die (Me 3.0?). Otherwise you’ll wind up just another stale version of MS Office languishing on a shelf at Staples.

Life is a precious gift, but it’s also a responsibility. If you live in a state of perpetual beta, you’ll be able to squeeze every ounce of worth out of it.

You’ve had the same Web page since 1996, and it has always served you well. There’s a link for folks to send you an email and a little animated gif of a bunny rabbit at the bottom. Everything works fine. So why should you change it? I’m glad you asked.

1. Get with the times.
For most people, “Web 2.0” doesn’t mean anything. It’s just one of those tech-geek buzzwords like “P2P” or “Open Source” that make the average Web user glaze over. But just because the term itself is meaningless, doesn’t mean that you can’t take some of the common Web 2.0 concepts and apply them to your site. By doing a couple of simple things, you can update your Web presence to let your visitors know that you are keeping up with the times.

For example, instead of having a link to your email address, try adding a contact form so visitors can send messages to you directly from your site. Instead of that animated gif, add a little Flash animation to your header or create some onmouseover effects for your navigation buttons. Simple touches like these will let your users know that you aren’t stuck in the ’90s.

2. Rename, rebrand, relaunch.
This is what I’m working on over at my personal Web site. It used to be exclusively about my music, but I’m changing it to reflect my complete Web presence, including portfolio, blogs, and my music.

If you want to change the direction of your Web site, don’t just change a few paragraphs on the front page or the header graphic. Make the changes complete from top to bottom. If you want your site to say something different than before, you need to distance yourself from your old message as much as possible.

3. Optimize for search engines and your users.
Chances are, if your Web site is more than two years old, you should probably rewrite everything. One of the tenets of the Web 2.0 movement is that style should be separate from markup. So, when you view source and see tables within tables and a bunch of tags, time for a redesign.