The nature of many Web 2.0 applications now using technologies like AJAX means your detectable clicks and page views for analytic purposes are going to drop even though data is changing hands.

An understanding of the AJAX protocols goes a long way to understanding the new Web 2.0 buzz about events and time spent on a particular aspect of a site rather than hits, page views, click-thru etc

Yes, sure, technical skills are important, but I come from marketing; in the last 6 years as a full-time web analytics consultant, I have had to acquire technical skills, but I would say that analytical ones are more important in my case.

However, I can certainly appreciate being able to develop applications by oneself whever the need arises.

You may also not need to worry about the technical side if you work in a place where you would have the resources to create custom applications around BI and analytics data. It seems that in most places I have worked, there is usually not a lot of time available from programmers to create these applications for me.

I sure would love to have those skills, but let’s not forget that this is in case one wants to add a very technical vector to one’s competence.

There are also opportunities on the business side. In my case, I am getting skills on the BI side of things (let us know if you find great SQL/MySQL resources), statistics, data modelling, etc.