Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a social and innovative concept to the internet as we know it today.  Web 2.0 is developing and witnessing various changes of the web is quite an exciting experience.  “A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as consumers of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (prosumers) are limited to the active viewing of content that they created and controlled” (1).  We live in a very social, technologically based world and make use of the internet daily by going on facebook, twitter, you tube, myspace, blog sites, and other social networking sites.  These are examples of Web 2.0 and every one of them show how much the internet has evolved.  One reason why Web 2.0 is exciting and changes the internet as we know it today is because people around the world can now publish their own thoughts, ideas, and interact with others within a social media.  “Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information.  By increasing what was already possible in “Web 1.0”, they provide the user with more user-interface, software and storage facilities, all through their browser.  This has been called “Network as platform” computing.  Users can provide the data that is on a Web 2.0 site and exercise some control over that data.  These sites may have an “Architecture of participation” that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it” (1).  This new generation of the internet is not only about social networking, it is also about allowing its users to go beyond receiving information and using more software.  Web 2.0 is useful in many ways and opens up many more social opportunities for everyone around the world.  “In the year and a half since the term “Web 2.0” has clearly taken hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google.  But there’s still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means, with some people decrying it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, and others accepting it as the new conventional wisdom” (2).  While opinions vary regarding this second generation of the internet, it does not change the fact that it is gaining popularity with new users every day and that it is making the internet ten times better than ever before.  “Originally, data was posted on Web sites, and users simply viewed or downloaded the content. Increasingly, users have more input into the nature and scope of Web content and in some cases exert real-time control over it. For example, multiple-vendor online book outlets such as BookFinder4U make it possible for users to upload book reviews as well as find rare and out-of-print books at a minimum price, and dynamic encyclopedias such as Wikipedia allow users to create and edit the content of a worldwide information database in multiple languages. Internet forums have become more extensive and led to the proliferation of blogging” (3).

 

 

1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

2. http://www.oreillynet.com/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
3.  http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1169528,00.html