Web2.0 - How I work - Confused?

So I'm a knda normal techno-geek-blogger-manager for a large services company... and I have a kinda allegiance to Microsoft, mostly...

I've done a lot of podcast lsitneng in recent month and the whole connected web / web 2.0 / mash-up etc etc thing is real interesting too me and to be fair I just love the innovation of it all, I don't really care what the technology is, or who funded it, just that things are gettin' exciting out there with web apps and the Humans are @ the centre of it all..cool..

So I guess my first exposure to this was, and I guess in the naturalist side of things its not the most "real" experience, but it was through the Microsoft Live "initiatives"...and I kinda like it... I like the way I can get my RSS feeds into one place (I don't like the screen layouts) but this got me thinking.. listneing to the podcast that mentioned start-ups, VC's and people doing some crazy-cool stuff made me feel that I was sampling the styarter not the real deal main course of web 2.0 stylee apps... but me as a "home user" is probably gonna come across the Microsoft incarnation first and take that as being what its all about and stick with it...but it isnt the be-all-and-end-all..out there is a whole crock of beautiful shoiny new things... go out there try it taste if its good for YOU then keep it, if its crap, doesn't work or gets "bettered" then drop it and move on...

Virtual Karma did a complete list of web 2.0 apps...its not complete, but the comments left on the blog in response to his post probably verges on being perfect.. thats the absolute power of this shit, its great...

So now I still use Windows Live to aggregate my RSS feeds into one browser interface (for the moment), but now i'm trying Remember the Milk for my reminders (I get MSN'd when they are due!), I'm checking out hte TechChrunch Swiki for stuff that sounds interesting to try out.... I've tried Box for my free 1Gb virtual storage..had problems with the client side java app though :-( but I'll persits, talk to the developers, work out what happened and then continue or discard..theres others out there... I'm trying out iKarma for my "reputation" tool... click me and have your say about my reputation!

Next I'm gonna look at JumpCut to record and mix my podcasts for work and well its 11:30..i'm knackered but I've got so many ideas..so muany germs of innovation swimming in my head that I need to find an ideas/whiteboard/think factory site to dump them in and then share them with you all....

Its a journey through "beta-land" some of its crap, some of it has limited differentiators but all of it is bold and innovative.. get in their, swim about, stroke the virtual fish and get yourself connected..

The desktop is there to look pretty (get a backdrop from Flickr).. the web is there to give you POWER!