At the highly promoted but generally panned Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, there was a strong showing from companies in the "instruction" marketplace. Two stand out: Instructables.com and inthechair.com

While "In The Chair" uses the Net to help aspiring musicians improve their chops, it really seems more Web 1.0 than 2.0 - still an interesting and no doubt useful Web App. Instructable, on the other hand, uses a social-networking / user generated content model. The result is a site that encourages people to show how they create things. For example, do you know how to etch a custom image onto the surface of your Mac PowerBook? That is one of the thousands of "instructions" available on the site. Or how about making one of those geometric lamp shades that are so popular. Have a motorcycle and want to know where you are going? Try installing a GPS on your bike. You get the idea.

I'm encouraged by this site because it begins to enter into a territory the Internet was originally premised on: ubiquitous knowledge sharing.