Member Article

Web 2.0: The 'What'

With Justin Souter of Souter Consulting

Part 2 of a series of articles on the application of Web 2.0

The ‘What’ of Web 2.0 can be difficult to pin down. Tim O’Reilly’s original description doesn’t give a succinct definition. However, the analyst Forrester defines Web 2.0 as:

“A set of technologies and applications that enable efficient interaction among people, content, and data in support of collectively fostering new businesses, technology offerings, and social structures.”

The Gartner Group - another analyst, reckons there are three clusters:

1. “Technology and architecture” – how the back-end technical stuff has changed (ask your Web people); also Really Simple Syndication (RSS), which is like email in that it brings web content to your desktop.
2. “Community and social” - the familiar tools like blogging, wikis, also social networking, and micro-blogging tools like Twitter. There seem to be limitless others!
3. “Business and process” -

• e.g. a “mashup”: a website or application which combines two or more data feeds, the classic example being Housingmaps - taking data from Google maps and Craigslist classified adverts
• also Software as a Service (SaaS) - where an application is hosted and delivered without dedicated desktop software and often used through a web browser (e.g. Google Mail)

n.b. although I will mention 1 & 3 above, these articles will mainly deal with the community and social side of things.

Web 2.0, as its name suggests, is the latest development of Tim Berners-Lee’s brilliant idea. The main distinguishing feature of Web 2.0 is that users have been given tools to create content for themselves – e.g. YouTube’s strapline is “Broadcast Yourself”.

Web 2.0 is also mindset issue and a generational one. Young people, who have grown up with computers, are happy to share personal information online: this is the direct opposite to older people, who view this as a vital privacy / security issue.

The power these tools put in our hands has created a grave threat to the traditional broadcasting and publishing industries (not to mention music).Whilst some believe that the ‘lunatics have taken over the asylum’, I contend that once we have learned / made up a broadly acceptable slate of new rules, there is much to be gained.

Things to bear in mind:

• Create more than you capture
• Build Your Network Before You Need Them

Feel free to ask any questions at bdaily.info or on my own site, and join us next Wednesday when we’ll be looking at the ‘why’ of Web 2.0.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Supreme Ice Cream .