I began writing about the second generation of web technology — what would later become known as social media and more generally Web 2.0 — in what seems like an eternity ago in the later reaches of 2000 which I suspect possibly places me as one of maybe the first hundred or so people to start blogging in the UK. Having retired my original blog after more than a couple of thousand posts in 2006 I’ve since occasionally contributed articles to the official blog on xero.com along with a few other online publications. I decided to start again because we’re now entering another period of real change where the impacts are likely to be more profound and farther reaching than anything we’ve experienced. Mostly rooted in the software industry but occasionally straying beyond, these are some of my thoughts, observations and theories about the impacts and effects of the forces of innovation and change as we enter what I believe will be seen as a something of a new Renaissance.