Web 2.0 Style

I was looking over a BusinessWeek online article today that looks at how Internet investing is challenging the established media and how users are taking more and more control – and are beginning to even define brand.

Here’s and excerpt: "…YOUR NEWS, YOUR WAY.  The new business model begins with a platform and set of user tools based on Web 2.0 technology. It’s used to attract a community of users, which in turn create a marketplace on the Web. ‘The content and brand emerges at the end of the cycle and it’s created by the users,’ according to Troy Young, executive vice-president and chief ‘experience architect’ at Organic, an online advertising and consulting firm. … ‘But if incumbents in news, media, and other markets are to flourish, they will have to make changes. Their roles as gatekeepers and repositories of centralized content are fading. ‘Power is shifting toward the individual, operating at the edge of the network and away from the giant companies at the center of the network,’ says Michael Arrington, chairman of edgeio.com and the founder of techcrunch.com, a popular blog that tracks Web 2.0 companies. Adds Arrington: ‘It’s a paradigm shift for everyone on the Internet’."

I think those that want to emerge on top of their market would be wise to implement Internet branding tactics that take advantage of these powerful trends.