Dion Hinchcliffe, editor-in-chief of SYS-CON Media's Web 2.0 Journal (web2.sys-con.com), writes: I welcome you to the new Web 2.0 Journal! As the first magazine dedicated to coverage of the vibrant and dynamic world-wide community that is Web 2.0, we are pleased to provide our readers a high-quality, one-stop information source on this subject. We hope over time to develop the deepest and widest coverage on Web 2.0 topics that you will find anywhere in the world.

Though it's a complex and often subtle topic - and recognizing that Web 2.0 definitions vary across the community - we believe "Web 2.0" captures the current spirit of innovation in online software. Web 2.0 also heralds the arrival of a new all-encompassing platform for delivering applications and content that also subsumes our existing systems within it; this platform is the now-pervasive World Wide Web. And while some may dislike the term itself, we believe it's useful, broadly recognizable shorthand for the exciting new things that are happening in the online software world today.

There is no doubt that the Web has changed recently in important ways. New techniques and technologies are reshaping the way we think about and use the online world to meet our needs. From AJAX to XmlHttpRequest, tagging and folksonomies, to BitTorrent and RSS, the way we design and connect software together is evolving before our eyes. Not only is the software experience more online, but it's an increasingly two-way, social, even communal, experience. Online publishing is being replaced with blogs, content management systems with wikis, static web pages with rich Internet applications (RIAs). Never mind that the Web itself has become a vast landscape of information services that can be wired together to reuse and take advantage of aggregated data and functionality.

This is increasingly making the online world a mirror of the offline world through our computers and mobile devices. Microsoft's Gary Flake likes to call this the "Internet Singularity." And we're excited to jointly navigate and explore all these concepts with our readers as Web 2.0 continues to evolve.

Beyond popular buzzphrases like The Long Tail, Harnessing Collective Intelligence, and Customer Self-Service, there is also a very real and widespread phenomenon in Web 2.0. This is a new burst of creative energy in the industry that has resulted in a wave of compelling new Web 2.0-style software. Terrific examples abound like Flickr, del.icio.us, Writely, Basecamp, Digg, and many others. The hallmarks of these online applications are their pervasive availability, interactivity, social immersion, user-driven organization, community contribution, and particularly their reusable, remixable services. See my full list of the Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005 to get a feel for what this generation of online software brings us.

As for areas of coverage in Web 2.0 Journal, we will bring you the latest news, analysis, feature articles, product reviews, interviews with Web 2.0 movers and shakers, and much more. With related publications such as the AJAX Developer's Journal and the SOA Web Services Journal, we already have a well-connected group of editors and authors that can cross-pollinate and provide the widest possible view of the topics in the Web 2.0 toolkit.

Finally, we are always interested in new content and fresh perspectives, so if you are interested in writing for the Web 2.0 Journal, please send me your proposals at mailto:dion@sys-con.com?subject=Web%202.0%20Journal%20-%20Article%20Proposal.

Dion Hinchcliffe
Editor-In-Chief
Web 2.0 Journal