There is an interesting piece on Business Week (link tip via Drew Benvie) on the 25 most influential people on the Web right now. Interesting in 2 respects:

- It would seem, according to Business Week anyway, that the long tail starts early – from Rupert Murdoch, Google and Yahoo to still fairly small scale startups in 25 steps. No space for Sir Tim, then

- In its way, its a marker of the zenith of the Web 2.0 movement, as a number of the people are counted as influential principally as players in the Web 2.0 firmament.

Timing, as they say, is everything – this was no doubt commissioned pre-meltdown. Given the changes in the funding markets that has become clear in the last few weeks, it is very unlikely that many of the FreeConomic funded Web 2.0 plays will see out another year, relying as they do on Other People’s Money for funding (ooops) and being sold to companies whose own stock is under pressure for an exit event (those that have got in their money for the Nuclear Winter will be fine*, others will probably follow Wall St to the wall). (To be fair, I think all the small companies here have found funding recently)

Our own view – the big players have still got cash, but the current market will see a move to quality and proven capability. Read it yourself and work out who you think will be around same time, next year. Answers on a postcard in the comments below

The other thing in Drew’s post that is interesting is this article from Management Today about the Gen Y(oof) and their expectations from Work 2.0:

It splits workers up into ages; generation Y, X and baby boomers. The article and the research behind it talks about how the 30 and under generation has had and wants many different jobs and is used to prosperity.

“Portfolio careers, switching industries, career breaks, flexible working, a more objective view of one’s value in the market, are all defining features of Work 2.0, this new world of work which Generation Y is helping to create,” says the article. But it concludes with a thought – what about when the market falters, how will work 2.0 cope then?

How indeed? It remains to be seen how much of the Shiny New New Media World is mere froth on the latte……. big losers will be those with high cost bases, those who operate on shoestrings are the “cockroaches of the Nuclear Winter” as Will McInnes puts it

*Fred Wilson makes exactly this same point here.