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It was the year of Web 2.0 technology in 2006 -- an era of social networking that spawned interactive communities of cyber-congregators seeking to share common interests and passions.

Tens of millions of Web surfers took information technology to the next level, becoming content creators and contributors to "blogs" and "wikis," online resources that allow users to add and edit content collectively. The Internet became truly interactive in 2006, and it seems everybody wanted to join in.

Video-sharing website YouTube "is a great example" of participative behaviour, said David Jacobson, a technology director at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Toronto. "These participative places are springing up all over."

YouTube and the online digital world of Second Life were among the most successful participative communities on the Internet and demonstrated the power of Web 2.0 technology in rallying communities of common interest -- literally millions and millions of people. Businesses paid close attention, and were astounded by the masses that could be engaged.

Market analysts like Mr. Jacobson and John Madden, a research director at consulting firm Ovum Summit in Boston, believe that in 2007 many companies will look for a piece of the action and become extremely active in cultivating participative behaviour to create online communities interested in what they have to say.

Other than saying and doing interesting or outlandish things, there's really no blueprint for a business to follow in order to build its own community of participative behaviour. How, for example, might a company successfully create a social network to build communities that rally around their brands or products?

Success may depend upon lack of control or more specifically a company's willingness to stand back and allow the online community or sponsored interactive forum it rallies to grow in its own way, Mr. Madden says. "It's finding the balance between being the Wild West and a police state."

In 2007, it seems reasonable to assume that many more people will become active participants in social networking communities, and not just during their leisure time.

"We're living in a new era," Mr. Jacobson says. "Consumers and employees are engaging in participative behaviour during leisure time and during working hours."

"We're moving in a very participative and imaginative world -- a world where . . . networking and partnering is becoming much more broadly and deeply used. It's enabled by these [Web 2.0] technologies."

Getting known on the Internet has become a pursuit for many businesses, Mr. Jacobson says, explaining that a small-business operator who's an active blogger "is pretty much going to be picked up by Internet search engines, and that's a wonderful way to spread your profile.

"We refer to it as viral advertising -- it spreads like a virus and doesn't cost you much," he says. "Being on the Web through blogging is an example of viral marketing and advertising."

Cyber-communities of participative behaviour are great places for businesses to learn from and about those who might be interested in retail products and services.

"If you are a little business, one of the things you might do is test drive new ideas through an online community. It's a new area of market research," Mr. Jacobson says.

"There are lots of inexpensive and active blogs where you can reach out to people and test ideas and see what reaction you get. It's an extension of classic market research that was typically not available to smaller companies. The little guys didn't have that ability before. Now that has changed . . . thanks to the Internet."

Mr. Jacobson predicts that, in 2007, new technologies will be available to business that will provide the means to deliver unique services to customers who clearly want real-time and interactive online experiences.

Among the most intriguing are emerging wireless communication services offered through cellular telephones that are "location aware." Through certain types of wireless telephones, there will be the means to pinpoint a person's location from a cellular signal and deliver to them a localized service. It's already being used. Mr. Jacobson describes a dating service offered by South Korea telecom. If there is someone who fits your defined dating profile located within 100 metres of you, then you might receive an e-mail alert message telling you that person is nearby and can arrange an immediate meeting. A similar application in retail might allow a business to electronically alert people passing near a storefront location to specials or discounts featured that day. These would be announced via e-mail or voice messages. "You could be seeing some of these applications and services come to market in 2007," Mr. Jacobson says.

Projectors in mobile devices are coming, too. You'll be able to use a handheld device like a cellphone or PDA as a projector to display Internet Web pages, movies or live television on any nearby surface. A business profession might want to quickly download a presentation from a remote PC and show it to a customer in colour on a wall, Mr. Jacobson says.

"The world is moving away from capturing people's attention to capturing their intention," he says. "I'll try and capture it using multimedia or coming to your office and showing you a video on a wall. It's highly targeted and personalized content and a lot of it is user-originated content.

"These technologies will be focused on understanding and serving ubiquitous participants, whether consumers or employees." Dan McLean is editor-in-chief of publisher ITWorldCanada.com.

dmclean@itworldcanada.com