Catching up?

For close to forty years one of my brother's favorite quotes (which for some reason I seem to perennially remember incorrectly) has been from the composer Edgar Varese:

There is no such thing as an Avant Garde.
There are only people who are a little bit late.

I certainly can't lay claim to belonging to any sort of internet avant garde. Historically I suppose that I'm what should be called an early late-comer, catching on (not, in this case, up) just as the web was taking off. And I didn't invent anything, or design any tools that furthered the social use of the internet. On the other hand, one of the aspects of the present Web 2.0 phenomenon that is perhaps most distressing is the extent to which the tools that are now being promoted are similar to tools that I outlined and put on a wish list. Yes, technological advances have made these more achievable than ten years ago, but it's hard not to ask why others didn't envision these directions back then.

Go to: Did we have to back then, or
Go to: How to tell 1.0 from 2.0, or
Go to: It's just too Oh!