Web 2.0, apparently

The analyst firm Gartner has been harping on about "global-class computing" for some time now, telling us how Google and eBay aren't really web sites but platforms and if we want to move to the next generation of the web, business will need to follow a similar model and think outside the enterprise box.
While it suits Gartner and those of us working in web development to think that the next generation of technology is here and that there is a clear threshold we need merely step across in order to attain super-webdom, Gartner's approach has all the symptoms of a futurologist's thinking. Specifically, it is based on technological possibilities rather than real requirements and is devoid of political insight.
While it's true that businesses should not need to host every application under the sun in order to provide a bit of brochure-ware with no idea of return on investment, there needs to be a compelling reason for people to make use of the always on, available from everywhere super fast web. And what's more — get this — it's actually got to work, securely, for people who don't need to be trained but who can make informed choices about their browsing preferences.
Content and interfaces need to be better. When I start up my application even at OS level, if I'm shopping I want the system to find me the cheapest product availabe. If I'm looking for an authoritative answer I don't want to be taken to Wikipedia. And above all I don't want to open up an application and have a couple of hundred offers for penis-stimulating pharmaceuticals.
The thing that gets me most about these predictions however is that they always forget the most important part of the internet: infrastructure. Anyone reading these reports would think that making a request to a web site or mail server and getting a response was some kind of auto-magical process, unworthy of comment.
Without infrastructure the web is nothing and beyond the shores of the developed world that's pretty much what you have. The entire African continent has barely as many internet connections as Manhattan island. Meanwhile there is dispute over who controls the internet's addressing system which, by a quirk of fate, currently resides with the U.S. government. Most states would prefer to see this control ceded to the United Nations, but not George Bush. He sees a danger in allowing countries which may prevent freedom of speech in controlling internet domains, but actually the fear should be that the U.S. will in future be able to simply cut an entire nation out of the internet: email, web access to uncensored content, everything. I guess it's better than dropping bombs on 'em. Meanwhile, what of the people working behind the screens? Will the global-class players act as such? Will Amazon allow trades union representation and remove the glass ceiling that prevents you from reaching management unless you're male and white? Will eBay recognise a duty to the consumer rather than training all its support staff to deny any errors and lay all the blame with whoever has just lost their money when their credit card details are stolen?
Web 2.0 will need to address such issues if it's not going to become yet another method for making capital, irrespective of social responsibility.