Web 2.0 is not new. The term was coined retrospectively to describe a change that had already happened. The passive 'brochure on your screen' Web that required us only to be readers of a web site owner's content, and clickers of occasional buttons, had gradually transformed into a Web in which we can provide the content and interact directly with other users.

Web 2.0 involved relatively little technical progress. What has changed most is the way that we think of the Web as a tool in our daily lives. It's a social change more than a technical one. As with any social change there are winners and losers all along the spectrum, from the early adopters to the Luddites. The over-enthusiastic can too easily be herded into adopting technology without understanding the social and management implications. Our susceptibility to wanting to have the 'latest thing' and our instinct to do something because we are told that 'everyone is doing it' can lead us to doing things without thinking and using technologies that we don't fully understand. At the other end of the scale the Luddite in us can fail to see a new and better way of doing things because it is so radically different and not what we are used to.

Web 2.0 is not scientifically defined, so you can include or exclude whatever you like. However, the following is a default list of what I would include:

Content Management Systems (CMS) – The Web 2.0 control centre software that not only manages content, but creates the pages from individual 'portlets' of content or functionality.

Registrations and access control – Important to get a CMS that is as sophisticated as you are in terms of structuring who can access what and how much you need to know or control your users.

Profiles and presence – In social networking every user can publish their own profile for others to see. Users can mutually decide to be linked in a network, which can make interesting patterns of connection. Some systems alert you when an associate is logged on so you can contact them.

Messaging – enables users to contact each other, either hiding identities or revealing them, but contact is contained and recorded within the site. Messaging can be used for chat conferencing or can integrate with email.

Blogs and micro-blogs – users can publish their own thoughts, experiences of the day, or anything. Those who are interested elect to follow them. Micro-blogs (Twitter) restrict you to 140 characters so are suitable for accessing via moblie phone SMS.

Discussion Groups and Communities – an asynchronous discussion with posts organised into subject threads. Usually incorporating email notifications of new posts.

Telephony and Conferencing – Voice calls, video conferencing, web conferencing, and webcasts conducted over the Internet. The free Skype service is the world leader, but others offer more sophisticated seminars with the ability to make presentations, hand out documents, and get audience feedback.

Cloud Computing – Various services and Software as a Service (SaaS) provided over a Web interface. Increasingly they work through a browser (thin client), but some require client software to be downloaded and installed. Accounting and Customer Relationship Management are popular cloud computing applications.

E-commerce – a bit old hat now, and arguably not strictly Web 2.0, but very much a part of the mix for all businesses that can sell via the Web. Some sales are complex and require supplementary systems such as e-ticketing, user specifications, or client messaging.

Collaboration spaces – simply repositories on the web where users who are collaborating can have shared files and folders. Desktop access technology like WebDAV makes such spaces very easy to use.

Collaboration tools – A suite of tools such as calendars, schedulers, wikis, and roadmapping systems that enable people to work together. Wikis are novel in that users can edit web pages and so contribute. Wikipedia is the prime example, which is also a form of Crowd Sourcing.

News feeds – the structured content produced by a CMS can be fed to another site meaning that sites can easily share content, or users can take news feeds directly into their browser or a desktop aggregator as an alternative to browsing and e-newsletters.

Mash-ups – joining two Web 2.0 services together to make something extra. The classic is mashing Google maps into your web site on the 'How to find us' page so that it shows your location. Using standards such as Web Services and XML facilitates the close integration of different web sites.

Each of the above is an element in a tool kit. As the Content Management System is at the heart of a site it should be chosen with the most care. Proprietary offerings can be sophisticated but expensive. Open Source, which are usually free, compete well with them and are dominating the growth. Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and Plone are popular and between them cover a wide range of sophistication. However, success comes not from just having the tools, but from the understanding and skill with which you use them.

In the early days of what we might now call Web 1.0, people were so keen to have a web site that they built empty ones, partly through not realising that you required content to fill them. Page after page said 'under construction' until the frustrated user abandoned the site, often never to return. Today we repeat that mistake by creating empty forums, wikis, and 'blogospheres', in the belief that people will populate them just because they exist. Empty structures in a social networking environment are like deserted buildings and restaurants: people don't like to use them.

Content is still king on the Web. For social and Web 2.0 sites the owner is not the content provider, so you have to animate, lead, cajole, tempt, and attract participants. It is better start small and simple, increasing the structure and re-organising content rather than building a technically impressive Web 2.0 edifice that is deserted on day one. With modern Web 2.0 content management systems, the days of the technical 'web master' are over. The skills needed to run a Web 2.0 site are the soft skills of communication, marketing, and community-building.

Neil Rathbone is a 'soft' consultant in managing new web technologies.