What is Web 2.0?
A lot of business analysts have given extreme views on
Web 2.0. These people initially regarded Web 2.0 as
marketing hype. But over the succeeding months, they have
embraced the newly developed Internet technology as a new
generation concept of the new World Wide Web.
More than just a version number, the Web 2.0 is an attempt
to describe the improvements and the evolution that has
happened and is happening with the World Wide Web. It is not
merely an upgrade as version numbers commonly connote.
Rather, it is a second wave of significant concepts and
technologies that has emerged over the past few years to
revolutionize the way we see, hear, and use the World Wide
Web.
Technologies and new concepts such as wikis, podcasts,
weblogs, RSS (Really Simple Syndication)/CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets), web APIs (Application Programming
Interfaces), social software, and social bookmarking have
made its mark in the Internet Community. Web online services
such as Gmail, eBay, Wikipedia and Google have evolved from
just read-only websites to providing and influencing a
significant enhancement to online services by using the
concept of community sharing.
It is also said that Web 2.0 is really more of an attitude –
an idea or a set of ideas in people’s heads rather than a
reality. It is a way of thinking that the give and take
concept between the user and the provider is always
emphasized when it comes to Web 2.0.
World Wide Web users now enjoy the concept of pure
interactivity where users have the freedom to share and
re-use anything from blog entries, music, and videos to
pictures. Users have freedom to generate and distribute
ideas as well as upload and download such data. All these
new concepts have led to the rise of the World Wide Web in
terms of economic value. The variety of substance that users
can now do online have also added to the Web 2.0
perspective.
In order to prevent Web 2.0 from being regarded as just a
marketing buzzword, Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle (founder
and Chairman of Federated Media Publishing and co-author of
Business 2.0, respectively) tried to set out a set of key
principles that will describe and define Web 2.0 to the
entire world during the actual Web 2.0 Conference. Tim
O’Reilly claimed Web 2.0 as business taking over the World
Wide Web and thus being a universal platform that optimizes
its every aspect and strength. The underlying concept
beneath Web 2.0 technology is going against the nature of
things by building applications, technologies and services
around the very unique features of the Internet instead of
expecting it to conform to built applications, technologies
and services.
In the course of the Web 2.0 conference, they presented the
following ideas and concepts to further emphasize Web 2.0 as
the new World Wide Web concept:
“The Web as a Platform.” - At the age of Web 2.0, the
World Wide Web has become a foundation upon which thousands
of new forms of business, technologies, and ideologies would
emerge. Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way people think. For
the Corporate world, the Web is a platform for business: a
platform for communications between marketers and consumers.
For journalists, it is a platform for new media. On the
other hand, it is a platform for Software Development as
regarded by programmers and web developers across the globe.
“Harnessing Collective Intelligence.” - Web 2.0
described network effects from user contributions as the
keys to market dominance in this new era of the World Wide
Web. Today, the World Wide Web is not only something that
users can read and view, but it has also become a stage for
inputs and participation. Web 2.0 allows users access to a
level of participation and interactivity thus adding more
value to the applications presented and eternally allowing
improvement and development from all directions.
“Data is the Next Intel Inside.” - Web 2.0 describes
data as the driving force behind applications. A Web 2.0
characteristic is data over the edge: unique, competitive,
organized, fast, efficient and hard to recreate.
“End of the Software Release Cycle.” - The so-called
Perpetual Beta. Web 2.0 is characterized by devices,
programs and applications as being ongoing services. Thus,
it is regarded as a continuum of incremental yet more
effective development of applications based on users being
engaged as the real time testers.
“Lightweight Programming Models.” - Web 2.0
characterizes applications as being built on a network of
cooperating data services. Instead of controlling
programming models, Web 2.0 offers web services interfaces
and content syndication as well as re-using the data
services of others.
“Software above the Level of a Single Device.” –
today, computers are not only the access device being
utilized for Internet applications. New media devices, such
as multiple handheld devices and internet servers have made
its way into the industry. In line with this, Web 2.0 is
suggesting that applications should also be flexible in
addressing the need for upgrading services to be compatible
with not only the computer but also with the rest of the
different emerging media devices.
“Rich User Experience.” - Web 2.0 greatly emphasizes
on the participation and genuine interactivity of users with
the platform. In Web 2.0, the Internet user is also at the
center of the stage - being able to provide, generate,
suggest, create, re-use, share, collaborate, merge and
re-emerge with new concepts, new ideas, new technologies,
new businesses, new strategies, and new communication styles
among others. As the remarkable digital ethnography by
Michael Wesch of Kansas State University have put into pure
visualization – The Machine is Using us.
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