Web 2.0 (remember that?) is, among other things, about open, platform-independent systems, not walled gardens with unnecessary restrictions on access and participation. The rise of browser-based applications means that participation needn't be arbitrarily restricted, for instance, to Windows PCs. A social network based on a Windows+Outlook-only application is really a network of Windows+Outlook users, which, while pretty big, still unnecessarily limits the quality of the participants.

To be Web 2.0, you have to provide your customers with that complete Web 2.0 experience. I participated a bump on the road today when I tried to go to a webinar offered by Jot to explain their Web 2.0 wiki application, JotSpot. JotSpot itself works fine on my Macintosh, and is a good example of the sort of open application that encompasses the entire universe of Internet-connected users. For some reason, however, when I clicked the link to the webinar, I got the message: "Your Operating System Is Not Supported. We currently support Windows only." It turns out that Jot, supposedly a Web 2.0 company, has saddled itself with "GoToMeeting", a decidedly Web 1.0 application.

Customer experience should have continuity, not restrictions like this. If you sell a Windows-only application, go ahead and use GoToMeeting; I understand it works fine for that kind of company. But if you'd like to emerge from 2002 and move to the Web 2.0 customer experience, avoid this kind of customer-adverse setup.