I read Go Flock Yourself for refreshment from hype and bullshit. Sure, I use web apps that have been inflicted after the event with the "Web 2.0" label; I even write web code using XMLHttpRequest and the like: I still cherish any snarky skepticism I find about the latest XML-empowered folksnonomic web, life and world transformative paradigm that lurches briefly into the light.

Imagine my surprise then, when, amongst all the deconstruction of empty pseudo-technical rhetoric, they posted Web2.0 is the anti-open source which nicely expresses my own discomfort about and ultimate distrust of flickr, del.icio.us, Amazon, Google and all the other closed-source, proprietary web apps out there, for all that I use them. Publishing an API is not the same as opening your source; what grounds (other than naïve optimism) have you for trusting, say, flickr? Or Yahoo!? Or Yahoo!'s shareholders? (trust me: no public company has any loyalty to its customers whatsoever; it's a one-way transaction).

Cynicism isn't always a bad thing: when you pass your data out of your control to a third party in return for the synergistic power of social networking and, real or illusory, community, just be aware that you're doing so.