Everyone seems to have figured out that the web is a great place to do business. There's hardly a business in America that doesn't have some kind of web presence. Even the little girl selling lemon-aide on the corner talks of "increasing her presence" on the web. But, is that it? Is the Internet just a business model? I guess you could point out that it is also a seemingly bottomless reference source.

Everything anybody wanted to know about anything (but was afraid to ask) is on the Internet somewhere. If you have access to new or unique information on anything, please post it.the world is waiting. So? Is that it? No room for the everyman to participate other than as a buyer of goods and services? Take heart, because there is change in the air.

A new Internet paradigm is forming, something people are calling Web 2.0. There is a lot of discussion about new business models, new ways to advertise, new application platforms, etc., but the most important part is often overlooked.

Web 2.0 almost unwittingly describes a new social phenomenon in which an older, wiser Internet community begins to change the nature of the web to conform to the needs of a distributed community. The human-technology interface used to be the stuff of science fiction.

People wired up to a collective electronic consciousness, devoid of all human feeling, never directly interacting with other people, immersed in a virtual world. Instead what we are seeing is the increased use of electronic means of communication has actually increased human interaction. Friends are never out of touch with each other, whether they're in different cities or even different countries. It's commonplace to have regular conversations with people from all over the world. Most Web 2.0 discussions tend to revolve around the changing Internet infrastructure, open source, network application platforms, data ownership and the like.

By focusing on the effect they are missing the point; the real revolution on the Internet has little to do with the infrastructure or the technologyit has to do with the people. The new web is a social phenomenon, not a technical one. The Internet is becoming part of the fabric of our society and as such people are changing it and adapting to it in new and unpredictable ways. So, why should ordinary citizens have their own website? Because that's the future of the Internet. Eventually, everyone will have a website and most people will have several. A website is cheap, easily built and can have as many uses as there are people to dream them up.

Sites to share with family and friends, sites to foment and carry on discussions, sites to keep in touch, to promote events, to promote yourself, to aid your communitythe list is endless. As the world shrinks and people from different cultures and backgrounds are thrust together, as families spread out and friends move away, the Internet provides the means to create new connections and to maintain old ones. As people begin to weave it into their culture it will become an invisible, seldom thought of force connecting people across the planet. Create your own website and become part of the new global community.

Dan Scott is a Computer Scientist with over 25 years of experience designing, building, and supporting computers and information systems. Make sure you see his web hosting analyses covering the top affordable web hosting providers.