Twice you're good

Sarah Lacy

Last weekend, Sarah Lacy, author of the new book Once You're lucky, Twice You're Good (The rebirth of Silicon Valley and the rise of Web 2.0), came to Des Moines to talk about her book and the lastest goings-on in Silicon Valley. Her book focuses on the entrepreneurs who built the Web (1.0) and those who are now creating Web 2.0, the technologies that are spawning all the new tools of social networking--products like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.


I haven't read the book yet, but Sarah offered a number of thoughts that have stuck in my mind:

* The big wheels in Silicon Valley are mostly from the Midwest, have hard-core work ethics, and are still on the move. For example, Marc Andreessen, born in Iowa and raised in Wisconsin, co-developed the first big Web browser, and recently co-founded Ning, a platform for social networking.


* Many of the new entrepreneurs are not computer language coders, like the guys who built Microsoft and Netscape. They are creative people with a big idea.


* Web 2.0 is spawning a new work culture in which many more people are self-employed, using tools like Facebook and Twitter to make contacts and drive business.


* Social networking gives us the capability to stay in touch with everyone we know, or at least want to stay in touch with, starting for kids in kindergarten.


* Venture capitalists, who funded so much of Web 1.0, are often getting cut out of the 2.0 action.


* Web 2.0 means as much to people in places like Des Moines and Omaha as it does to San Franciscans. There's no reason that the next big thing can't be invented right down the street here, Sarah says.


* The smart guys in Silicon Valley still draw out ideas on napkins.

* Web 3.0 is still totally unimaginable. Will it have something to do with new ways of connecting people? Mobile maybe? (Mobile still has fundamental software problems, Sarah believes.)


What does Web 2.0 have to do with agriculture? This year, with all the new bubbling up of social media, reminds me a lot of 1995, when many of us took to the Web on Marc Andreessen's first Mosaic browser. How much did the Web change farming? As much as paved roads and the telephone? The next couple years, I believe, will bring similar, dramatic changes in how we communicate, conduct business, and enjoy life.