My first ZDNet column: Innovation 2.0

Recently, Dan Farber — the Editor in Chief of ZDNet — was kind enough to invite me to contribute to Between the Lines, the excellent ZDNet group blog. My inaugural post is now up: Innovation 2.0: Why Web 2.0 companies might have to flip to avoid being flopped, and I will be back every now and then.

Want the short version on Innovation 2.0 ?

Forget the innovator’s dilemna principle in the Web 2.0 world: established players (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft & al) are bringing in talents by hiring them away or acquiring their companies, and are playing catch up on new features and services at an unprecedented pace. The initial versions of what they produce are not always great and don’t really match startup products or services, but in a relatively short order, they get closer and closer. And since the “elephants in the room” know one thing — scale, they can intercept startups when these start facing scalability issues and their initial architecture can’t cope with their success.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

And thanks to Dan for the opportunity to reach a much larger audience.