This has been a curiosity for me too.. In the popular press, Tim O'Reilly has been credited with first coining the term, but my understanding is that it was commonplace for software releases (emphasizing social and communications features) to attach "Web 2.0" after product names. We see this on press releases as early as 1996. Roots for the "Web 2.0" term may go a lot further back than we think. Perseus SurveySolutions released software they called "Web 2.0" on its own, which won a PC Magazine Editors Choice Award in February 2000. For fun I just used High Beam to scan press releases on "web 2.0".. I came across a joint press release by organizations called FileNet and BEA Systems, dated April 29, 2003: "Gordon Simpson, deputy CTO from BEA Systems, is slated to speak on "Web 2.0: Integration Today and Tomorrow" today at 10:00 a.m. PDT.... Organizations are continually challenged by the need to increase access to timely information, lower operating costs, and improve relationships with employees, customers and partners. Using BEA WebLogic Integration(TM), FileNet and BEA can solve business integration and portal requirements by bringing together information and data that is spread throughout an enterprise." According to this O'Reilly Media post (below) brainstorming for the first Web 2.0 conference began in 2003. http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/05/controversy_about_our_web_20_s.htm... A major caveat that this is fly-by research... and it's not clear if O'Reilly's private discussions occurred before, during, or after BEA's Web 2.0 speaking engagements on April 29 and July 11, in 2003. I don't know if there had been any ties between BEA Systems and O'Reilly, but it looks as though BEA might have been putting forth Web 2.0 as a collaboration-generating concept, at least for an organization's internal improvements, almost a year before O'Reilly Media began to use the term publicly and widely. On May 3 2004, O'Reilly Media and MediaLive International issued their joint press release announcing their October 2004 Web 2.0 Conference. - Paul ------------- Paul DiPerna Blau Exchange http://www.blauexchange.org email: pdiperna@blauexchange.org online ID: http://claimid.com/pdiperna