SLATES anyone?

Reading Andrew McAfee's Sloan article on characteristics of Web 2.0 (sorry - wish I could share but it's a 'purchase only' read). There are so many ways to look at Web 2.), and Mr. McAfee does a nice job outlining what to look for. In brief Web 2.0 includes those tools that include something he calls SLATES:

- Search function (making it easy to look for content that interests the user)

- Links (again, cutting down on slogging through lots of uninteresting info)

- Authoring (or, as we at frank like to call it, user generated content)

- Tags (categorization)

- Extensions (if you liked X, you'll enjoy Y)

- Signals (think RSS feeds)

A nice simple way to encapsulate the technological characteristics.

But I can't help adding a nod to the other equally important Web 2.0 characteristics - the Web 2.0 values. Speed over perfection. Open Source. Collaboration. (Alluded to in 'Authoring' but still worth calling out.) Real-time information. Authenticity. Transparency. Ease of Use.

All in all, Web 2.0 still defies a simple definition. But I liked McAfee's list, so what the heck.