Understanding Web 2.0

Sophia Guevara, MLISAlberta L. Brown Lecture Series | May 22, 2008

“The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.”

L. GrossmanTIME | December 13, 2006

Web 1.0

In this version, the author controlled website content. These sites were used primarily for commerce and information.Platform focus was on

computers instead of the Web.

Could the Web grow to be more than a collection of author controlled pages?

What would that look like?

The Power of Innovation

Why not give people the power to create content instead of just consuming it?

Could we create social networks within the virtual environment?

Web 2.0: Expanding Possibilities

- Network as platform- Software improved as

a result of more people using it.

- “Architecture of participation”

T. O'Reilly. “Web 2.0: Compact Definition? October 1, 2005

“Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that

platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more

people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by

others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to

deliver rich user experiences.”

Tim O'Reilly O'Reilly Radar | October 1, 2005

“Web 1.0 was commerce. Web 2.0 is people.”

Ross Mayfield, CEO of Social Text

Three Main Aspects of Web 2.01. Rich Internet Applications: “Bringing the user experience

from the desktop to the web.” Examples include: AJAX and Flash.

2. Service Oriented Architectures: “How do Web 2.0 apps expose their functionality so that other apps can leverage this and integrate their functionality – providing a much richer set of applications.” Examples include: Feeds, RSS, and mashups.

3. Social Web: “The end user is not only a user of the application, but a participant.” Examples include: Tagging, wiki, podcast, blogging.

Andi Gutmans, Co-founder of Zend. What is Web 2.0? ZDNet presentation (YouTube)

The Web 2.0 Life

Blogging Vlogging Social network sites Social Tagging Wikis Mashups Rich Internet

Applications

The 2.0 Society What is the impact of

this technology? Politics News Education Community Communication Economics

Getting Political Politicians have made

use of this technology to spread their messages to the masses. Blogging MySpace YouTube

Citizen Reporter With blogging and

vlogging, the average person has become empowered to report on events taking place within their communities.

Education in a Web 2.0 WorldMissed a class? Students can download podcasts of faculty lectures and seminars. The use of podcasts in education allows students to learn in a whole new way with a familiar technology.

Community It is as easy to reach

your neighbour as it is to reach someone a continent away.

People can seek out and form groups with those that possess similar interests.

Communication Continues to be

transformed in an online world

Written language in the age of mobile micro-blogging

Use of avatars and emoticons

Web Economics 2.0: Viral Marketing

Marketers are attracted to YouTube because a video message can be uploaded for free and will be circulated voluntarily by the users.

Marketers can spread their message on MySpace by being added as a friend.

Web Economics 2.0: Targeting a Lucrative Market

Ad space on social sites like Faceboook and MySpace generate millions in revenue.

Some YouTube celebrities have been able to secure corporate sponsorship. The site has begun to include ads in some YouTube videos.

Web 2.0 to You: Examples

Weblog Defined

“A personal Web site that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to

the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries and recommendations compiled by the

user”weblog. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6). Retrieved May 21, 2007,

from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/weblog

The Blog

Instead of reading news, they were busy creating it.

Blogging provided people a venue to post their thoughts online for the world to see.

The Vlog

“Video blogs, also known as vlogs, are blogs that primarily feature video shorts instead of text.”

Katie Dean. “Blogging + Video = Vlogging”. Retrieved April 5, 2008, from the Wired website:http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2005/07/68171

Social Networking Community Description

Description adapted from MySpace definition on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace

“These communities make use of profiles, weblogs, email, forums and groups to provide others with personalized information as well as enhance each member's online communication

experience.”

A Place For Friends

Social networking technology such as Facebook and MySpace allow members to keep in touch with friends online.

Professional Networking in the Virtual Space

Professional social sites allow their members to recommend former/current colleagues and build the valuable network needed to improve one’s career opportunities. In order to remain competitive with other more casual social networking sites, LinkedIn has added features to improve the social aspect of their site.

Wikis Defined

“A collaborative Web site set up to allow user editing and adding of content.”

Wiki. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6). Retrieved May 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wiki

Creating meaningWikis allow users to “freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser.”

Wikipedia is one of the most popular wikis. http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

Social Tagging Defined

Users work collaboratively to create metadata that will make the resource more easy to find.

Definition adapted from social tagging definition provided on the Sandy Nichols website. Retrieved from site on April 5, 2008 at: http://www.sandynichols.net/blog/findability-vocabulary/

Social Tagging

Web 2.0 Applications

Mashups Defined“A mixture of content or elements. For

example, an application that was built from routines from multiple sources or a Web site that combines content and/or scripts from multiple sources is said to be a mashup.”

Mashup Definition. (n.d.). TechEncyclopedia from TechWeb. Retrieved April 5, 2008, from the TechWeb Network website: http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=mashup

MashupsUtilizing popular mashup editors like Yahoo Pipes and Dapper, you can mashup the data from various sites to make a unique, new application.

Web 2.0 Office

Web 2.0 Office suites provided by companies like Google and Zoho have become very popular. The user can access their documents from anywhere and work on them simultaneously with other users.

ConclusionIn this new environment, the user takes on the role of both creator and consumer of online content. Not only has this technology changed the way we work and interact, it has given us the opportunity to make a greater impact within the web environment.