Anyone still working in app dev who was around before BritPop will remember the debate on how the likes of Object Orientation and Corba were going to revolutionize distributed computing and the way we interact with systems.

If so, you should be heaving a "here-we-go-again" type sigh faced with today's wave of euphoria for Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) and mashups.

According to those in the eye of the storm, this time things are gonna be different. Why? It’s the web services, stupid.

Yeah, right. No more slideware, lock-in or users becoming committed to products from vendors that cease to exist over time.

No doubt you’ll have other technology blasts from the past getting a Web 2.0-web-services-mashup-re-use-Agile makeover.

With that in mind, Reg Developer is pleased to welcome Gapingvoid as a regular contributor.

Cartoonist and blogger Hugh MacLeod is using Web 2.0 ideas and technologies to promote a South African wine label. Through this, he’s become known for Gapingvoid — cartoons drawn on the back of business cards which cover the effects that Web 2.0 and other technologies are having on the people in marketing and advertising, and for his comments on work, ego and relationships.

It’s a lesson for app dev, where developers are feeling the pinch of evangelists and over-enthusiastic higher-ups who, caught like deer in the lights of the Web 2.0 truck, are now beginning to talk Web 3.0.

For more on Hugh, go here.

Now, forward, unto the ’void....

Copyright © Gapingvoid. Originally published at www.gapingvoid.com.