The single-feature focus of Web 2.0 technologies (Flickr=share pictures, YouTube=share vidoes, Digg=read popular stories, etc.), the explosion of start-up activity, and the growing impatience of early adopters are fundamentally changing technology adoption. Explore how the change occurred, the strategic impact on commercializing new technologies, and what it means for the future of web technology.

Web 2.0 fundamentally changed the Net. It’s also fundamentally changing the technology adoption curve. A number of well defined and understood Web 2.0 trends have powered incredible innovation over the past four years yet they’ve fractured the attention span of early-adopters. Geoffrey Moore wrote of them as the patient group who can invest time to understand and appreciate a technology, helping you to “cross the chasm” towards mainstream success.

What happens when the chasm expands down to the earliest of adopters?

What happens when the group that was previously patient becomes the most impatient, picky, and expectant user?

What happens when early-adopters have become spoiled by single-feature technologies that take no more than a moment to grasp?

The challenge faced by the next wave of innovative start-ups for technology adoption increases by an order-of-magnitude.

The session explores the challenges faced by complex technologies that build on the infrastructure created in Web 2.0. Answering questions of how we got here, the session begins to explore—through assessment of strategies and case-studies—how we can navigate the new-world of technology adoption and commercialize complex web technologies.