What does Web 2.0 have to offer us offline?

Ah the wonders of the blog. This morning I checked the Technorati link of this blog (see right hand panel Blogs that link here) to find out who has been linking to us lately. And through that I find Udo Schroeter, who mentioned my post about stone soup in the footnote of a post about his concerns relating to the buzz around Web 2.0.  Also in that footnote was a link to a post by David Hornik at VentureBlog expanding on said misgivings and suggesting that an unhealthy side effect of Web 2.0 or as it is called there Bubble 2.0 is that 'there are a large number of "companies" being created again for the express purpose of being acquired.' That's what the 'bubble w.0' is about - that we could be heading for a second dot com boom and bust. Hmm. I find this depressingly likely....

Most interesting though was another link in Udo's blog to a previous post of his: Web 2.0 Or: 'that's great but how can I use it offline?'  in which he points out the obvious:

Label this Web 2.0, or whatever, it's just great to see it work. But there is an obvious drawback. It doesn't matter how great a web app is, you can obviously only use it while you're online.

And of course this extends to the fact that you can also only use it (a) when you understand what it is and how it works and (b) you are part of a culture which uses it. At the moment, this group is pretty tiny, and its future size likely to continue to be limited for some dozens if not hundreds of years. I'm one of the most cyber-optimistic people I know, but just occasionally my feet touch the ground, and this is one of those moments :)