A few days ago I blogged about how “NBC 2.0” restructuring plans were merely faux 2.0. Well it seems everyone is talking about 2.0 these day: what it is, what it is not, and whether it is becoming the platform for the short-term future of greedy people.

Legal scholar, creative commons founder, and all-around free internet superhero Larry Lessig wrote a post recently about the distinction between real 2.0 and fake 2.0 sites, arguing that YouTube is among the latter. He explains:

“YouTube gives users very cool code to either “embed” content on other sites, or to effectively send links of content to other sites. But never does the system give users an easy way to actually get the content someone else has uploaded. Of course, many have begun building hacks to suck content off of the YouTube site. (On the Mac, I’ve used TubeSock to do that). But this functionality — critical to true sharing — is not built into the YouTube system.”

This post drew the ire of Nick Carr, who accuses Lessig of– what else?– promoting communist values.

So why does any of this matter, really, in the world beyond academics and tech geeks? Essentially because something good—media tools and practices that enable true exchange and collaboration– are being co-opted by those who want to maintain the status quo.

If we fight to maintain the possibility of Web 2.0 by supporting net neutrality, copyright reform, and by attempting to distinguish between the fake end the real, we’ll encourage more great progressive interactive tools, the kind Lessig deems 2.0, such as flickr and Blip TV and more DIY projects like open source gaming and software and citizen journalism.

While the verdict is still out on whether people participating in making media are more likely to be active citizens, efforts such as Sunlight’s Under the Influence project, which enables web users to investigate how many members of the House of Representatives have their spouses on the campaign payroll, seem to have significant political value.

So don’t believe the hype! Web 2.0 is not about making money, it’s about sharing culture.

Tags: propaganda