Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Although Esther Dyson needs no introduction in the online world, the Web 2.0 NY conference underway today nevertheless profiles her as the “Internet’s court jester”:

“A person of no insitutional importance who somehow manages to speak the truth and to be heard when and where it matters.”

Where does “it” matter today online? Facebook is the face of Web 2.0 going forward, Dyson proclaimed in her opening keynote this morning on the “future” of Web 2.0.

Dyson recounted that while she has recently assured that “Google is not the end of the world” (Dyson is an investor in would-be Google killer Powerset), she has not been able to answer the perennial entreaty, what is the “next phase of history”?

Until now. Until May 24 to be precise, when Facebook unveiled F8 to the world.

Dyson, of course, is not the first Internet veteran to declare that she has seen the future and it has a big “f” in it. Is there any Web “visionary” that has not pre-ordained Facebook the Web’s one and only future?

SEE: Facebook: The End of Innocence

Why such near unanimous, virtually unconditional “love” from the Web’s best and brightest? Although just weeks out of the gate, Facebook is nonetheless deemed to be THE Web’s “platform,” from here on in.

Dyson is unequivocal in her advice to start-ups post May 24, 2007: “Throw out your development, go use Facebook.” WHY, though? It doesn’t matter if you are “better,” what matters is that you are “standard,” Dyson advised.

Three weeks is apparently sufficient for determing the Web’s standards these days.

Mark Zuckerberg, of course, concurs. At Facebook’s coming out party, he quipped, Google here we come:

“We’re the sixth most trafficked site in the U.S. and we can’t seem to get our act together,” Zuckerberg joked as he fumbled to synchronize his presentation slides, which were in disarray. After laughs from the crowd, he regained his composure and added, “We recently passed eBay in traffic and we’re working on passing Google, too.” (AP report)

Why is Dyson so gung ho for Facebook? It is the first platform for the “attention economy,” she said. While it is “not the only one,” the Facebook approach is optimal, Dyson believes, because it “mirrors the world” by allowing people to “build their own walled garden with their own gates.”

Dyson’s view of the Facebook “trusted friend” notion matches Facebook’s own position vs. a vs. MySpace. Facebook touts its Facebooker “you can only be my friend if I let you be” modus operandi as being (far) superior to the MySpace everyone is Tom Anderson’s friend point of view.

Dyson did allow, however, that being the Web’s “social arbiter” could turn out to be a dicey proposition. Not only does real “friendship” risk being devalued, but the Facebook platform itself may be deemed responsible for any “unfriendly” behavior on the part of ”friends” in one’s network.

Dyson’s concluding toughts though, perhaps unwittingly, were actually the most on the mark regarding Facebook’s real future.

While sighing in relief that she wasn’t asked one particular question–”What is Facebook’s business model”–Dyson was not playing the “Internet court jester,” it was her most telling remark.

ALSO: Facebook vs. MySpace: Who Needs Privacy?

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