Web 2.0 programmers wanted

A defining characteristic of Web 2.0 is that it is designed by programmers for programmers, where Web 1.0 was designed by media people and merchandisers for consumers. I know that there is a lot of talk about Web 2.0 being for "the people," but those people are supergeeks. In this first phase of Web 2.0 we are seeing the rapid proposal and adoption of "standards." When the dust settles in a couple of years, we'll have one leading standard and a minority, counter-standard in each area, as always. In the meantime, a lot of programmers are going to get hired to write a lot of new code based on these standards, and that is a good thing. Not just for programmers, but for users, since most of these things will be free. The WSJ (behind a paid subscription) today had a slightly confused article about the proliferation of programming languages, with references to both Ruby on Rails and Ajax. The important point is that the reporter and his editors recognized that programming as a cool activity is rising again in the zeitgeist.