Web 2.0 Sites for Designers

Web 2.0: a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2003 and popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004, refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O’Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.

I’m not usually one to jump on the bandwagon when people throw around buzz words like Web 2.0, but recently I’ve encountered a few of these types of sites that are really helpful. LinkedIn (which I discussed in my last post) is one such site, but another one–kuler by Adobe–is really targeted toward those us with with a creative persuasion… Essentially, kuler is all about color themes. You can share groups of colors with others, or search for inspiration among the thousands of suggested color palettes. As with many of these “next generation” or Web 2.0 sites, you have the option to access the site’s content through a web browser, or right on your desktop with a downloadable app.

Another good one is Basecamp. I know many web people who rely very heavily on this site when managing projects. I’ve used it and found it very helpful, particularly when managing a team of people spread out throughout the country (or world).

What others do you use?