March is not close to Independence Day of either U.S. or India, but this is not about independence from a foreign ruler. This concerns the Independence-Day of higher order. Independence is freedom for us to express ourselves freely. It sounds far fetched but if you think seriously about it, Internet has done more to bestow freedom for everyone to express themselves freely than any other kind of independence from anyone before.

Internet-independence is now at its second stage called Web 2.0. There are hundreds of definitions of Web 2.0, but there is no denying the fact that google and its IPO were the defining moments for Web 2.0 as Netscape and its IPO were defining moments for old web, now referred as Web 1.0. Google started the trend to put more control in users’ hand Today, if your content is popular and relevant, you have more links to your site (while google ranks you higher). If your ad is more relevant to users and get more clicks, it shows up higher (and of course more money for google). Perhaps, the most mind boggling of all user-controls is the “blog.” If you want your ideas to be read by others, you don’t have to start a magazine or newspaper or convince some editor to publish your writings, you can just “blog.” Then came the “you tube”-visuals over internet-so you not only tell but even show your ideas to the whole world. And now we have Umundo, which almost allows you to start your own channel without spending a dime, but making one for each click on your site. Like we have all heard the story about MySpace and how it got more page views in one month than Yahoo. So let’s put this one more definition of Web 2.0: the technology that allows us to freely express ourselves.

I hope you enjoy the issue, enjoy your freedom and enjoy blogging your thoughts and ideas on siliconindia.com too. Happy Independence Day!