Kathy Sierra’s recent post Manager 2.0 suggests a relationship between Web 2.0 applications and the organisations that develop them.

Web 2.0 is about Sharing, Interactivity and Community. It’s not about solving the problems of distributed computing. A Manager 2.0 operates using these same three principles.

Prior to starting up our business, I worked for large and small organisations. Every one of them operated the ‘old’ way – Kathy calls it Manager 1.0. The project and software management training I received, and the actions I took, all came from Kathy’s Manager 1.0 list. When I founded Junctionbox Media and employed Mark, I still operated that way. It’s not a nice way to work. Mark clued me in first when he reviewed our hilarious Terms of Employment.

It wasn’t until we started working on our first couple of web sites using Ruby on Rails, that I realised that Web 2.0 was causing us to change our behaviour. Indeed, Web 2.0 requires it. And it adds another point to my list of reasons for never wanting to work for someone else. This is why coffee is important, why pens matter and why I can blog during work time.