A Web 2.0 site allows users to
- interact with each other
- collaborate with each other
Examples of Web 2.0 include -
- social networking sites
- blogs,
- wikis,
- video sharing sites (i.e. Youtube)
- hosted services
- web applications
- mashups
- folksonomies
The term "Web 2.0" was first used in January 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, a consultant on electronic information design. In her article, "Fragmented Future", DiNucci writes:
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."The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] maybe even your microwave oven."
Pros vs. Cons
Web 2.0 offers all users the same freedom to contribute
"Rich user experience, user participation, dynamic content, metadata, web standards and scalability. Further characteristics such as openness, freedom and collective intelligence by way of user participation, can also be viewed as essential attributes of Web 2.0.
While this opens the possibility for serious debate and collaboration, it also increases the incidence of "spamming" and "trolling."
TECHNOLOGIES
The client-side (web browser) technologies used in Web 2.0 development are Asynchronous JavaScript, XML (Ajax) and JavaScript/Ajax frameworks such as YUI Library, Dojo Toolkit, MooTools, jQuery and Prototype JavaScript Framework.
Adobe Flex is another technology often used in Web 2.0 applications. Compared to JavaScript libraries like jQuery, Flex makes it easier for programmers to populate large data grids, charts, and other heavy user interactions.
In brief, Ajax is a key technology used to build Web 2.0 because it provides rich user experience and works with any popular browser including Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.
Web 2.0 can be described in three parts:
- Rich Internet application (RIA) — defines the experience brought from desktop to browser. Some buzzwords related to RIA are Ajax and Flash.
- Web-oriented architecture (WOA) — Examples are feeds, RSS, Web Services, mash-ups.
- Social Web — defines how Web 2.0 tends to interact much more with the end user and make the end-user an integral part.
According to Andrew McAfee, Web. 2.0 includes the folliowing features (SLATES)
- Search
- Finding information through keyword search.
- Links
- Connects information together into a meaningful information ecosystem using the model of the Web, and provides low-barrier social tools.
- Authoring
- The ability to create and update content leads to the collaborative work of many rather than just a few web authors. In wikis, users may extend, undo and redo each other's work. In blogs, posts and the comments of individuals build up over time.
- Tags
- Categorization of content by users adding "tags"—short, usually one-word descriptions—to facilitate searching, without dependence on pre-made categories. Collections of tags created by many users within a single system may be referred to as "folksonomies" (i.e., folk taxonomies).
- Extensions
- Software that makes the Web an application platform as well as a document server. These include software like Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash player, Microsoft Silverlight, ActiveX, Oracle Java, QuickTime, Windows Media, etc.
- Signals
- The use of syndication technology such as RSS to notify users of content changes.
A third important part of Web 2.0 is the Social web, which is a fundamental shift in the way people communicate.
As such, the end user is not only a user of the application but also a participant by:
- Podcasting
- Blogging
- Tagging
- Curating with RSS
- Social bookmarking
- Social networking
- Web content voting
Web 2.0 technologies provide teachers with new ways to engage students, and even allow student participation on a global level.
"The Web has the potential to radically change what we assume about teaching and learning..." - Will Richardson, Blogs Wikis Podcasts, and other Powerful Web tools for the Classrooms, 3rd Edition.
"Weblogs are not built on static chunks of content. Instead they are comprised of reflections and conversations that in many cases are updated every day [...] They demand interaction."
RANDOM INFO
The spread of participatory information-sharing over the internet, combined with recent improvements in lower cost internet access in developing countries, has opened up new possibilities for peer-to-peer charities, which allow individuals to contribute small amounts to charitable projects for other individuals. Websites such as Donors Choose and Global Giving now allow small-scale donors to direct funds to individual projects of their choice.
For marketers, Web 2.0 offers an opportunity to engage consumers. A growing number of marketers are using Web 2.0 tools to collaborate with consumers on product development, service enhancement and promotion. Companies can use Web 2.0 tools to improve collaboration with both its business partners and consumers.
Small businesses have become more competitive by using Web 2.0 marketing strategies to compete with larger companies....Social networks have become more intuitive and user friendly to provide information that is easily reached by the end user. For example, companies use Twitter to offer customers coupons and discounts for products and services.
AJAX has prompted the development of websites that mimic desktop applications, such as word processing, the spreadsheet, and slide-show presentation.
However...
Critics of the term claim that "Web 2.0" does not represent a new version of the World Wide Web at all, but merely continues to use so-called "Web 1.0" technologies and concepts.
In terms of Web 2.0's social impact, critics such as Andrew Keen argue that Web 2.0 has created a cult of digital narcissism and amateurism, which undermines the notion of expertise by allowing anybody, anywhere to share and place undue value upon their own opinions about any subject and post any kind of content, regardless of their particular talents, knowledge, credentials, biases or possible hidden agendas.
Web 3.0
Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, considers the Semantic Web an "unrealisable abstraction" and sees Web 3.0 as the return of experts and authorities to the Web.
Futurist John Smart, lead author of the Metaverse Roadmap, defines Web 3.0 as the first-generation Metaverse (convergence of the virtual and physical world), a web development layer that includes -
- TV-quality open video
- 3D simulations
- Augmented reality
- Human-constructed semantic standards
- Pervasive broadband, wireless, and sensors.
According to some Internet experts, Web 3.0 will allow the user to sit back and let the Internet do all of the work for them. Rather than having search engines gear towards your keywords, the search engines will gear towards the user.
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