What’s Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 also called as the wisdom Web, people-centric Web, participative Web, and read/write Web is the second phase in the evolution of World Wide Web. It ignited in the last few years with the successful implementation of some Web 2.0 based applications like MySpace, Flickr and Youtube. In a survey conducted 89% of the CIO’s reported that they have adapted at least one or more form of Web 2.0 tools and they see relative high business value in technology (Young, 2007). Realising the importance even the IT vendors and service providers are incorporating the Web 2.0 technologies and bringing new tools in the market.
Web 2.0 is both a usage and a technology standard. It is a collection of strategies, technologies and social trends. It is more dynamic and interactive than its predecessors, Web 1.0, letting its users to both access and share information (Murugesan, 2007). Some of the technologies it includes are blogs, wikis, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), Mashups, tags, multimedia sharing, podcasting and folksonomy. The concept of Web 2.0 began in 2004 during a brainstorming session between Tim O’Reilly and MediaLive International. After which a Web 2.0 conference was called (O'Reilly, 2005). Later Web 2.0 clearly took a hold, with more than 9.5 million definitions posted on Google by 2005 and 135 million by 2007 (O'Reilly, 2007). Still there exists a huge amount of disagreement with some people calling it a marketing fad and some considering it as a new conventional wisdom.
Based on the concept of Tim O’Reilly, Paul Anderson stated six ‘big’ ideas why Web 2.0 had such a huge impact (Anderson, 2007). These are the reasons why Web 2.0 received an overwhelming response. The first one being individual production and user generated content. Web 2.O have made it possible to upload a video or a photo from a digital camera into people’s own web space, tag it with keywords and make it available for their friends to see within a few clicks. Individuals are writing their own blogs and working together to create information through wikis. Secondly it harnesses the power of the crowd. Web 2.0 harnesses the power of the crowd by letting them upload images, videos and share among others. It helps in tagging webpage’s and sharing it with others over the internet. The third one being data on an epic scale. Web 2.0 technologies help capture the data from millions of users and then mine and sift this data to provide targeted recommendation. An example of this would be Amazon who captures your buying choice and then floods you with offers for the same. The next is the Architecture of participation. This occurs when through a normal use of the application or service the system gets better. An example of this Google search, it is designed in such a way that as more and more user participates it gets better. The fifth one is the network effect. The network effect is an economic term used to describe the increase in the value of the existing users of a service in which there is some form of interaction with others, as more and more people start to use it (Klemperer, 2006; Leibowitz and Margolis 1994). Once the network begins to build up and people become aware of it, the service popularity increase and the product takes off rapidly. The last one is the openness. An important technology in the development of Web 2.0 has been the open source software such as Firefox browser and others.
On of the other important driver in the fast development of Web 2.0 was the emergence of new technologies. These were underpinned by the idea of Web as a platform. Earlier software application ran on the user’s machine, but with web as a platform software services run within the user’s browser.
Web 2.0 has got several usages. One of the most important and talked about is in educational and institutional issues. Wikis have been used by most universities to help student share information. The example for this is the wiki created by Middlesex university information system students to share their views on dissertation. This helps the students to reflect and comment on each others view. By using blogs to write about the subject the student is studying helps them to get views by other students and transform the learning into a conversation. But it also faced by challenges like the production and authentication of the information. One are where it is already facing an impact is the Virtual Learning Environment. The VLE connects the user to the university resources, regulations, help, contents like module and assessment. There is an argument that this kind of applications can be misused.
Other educational use includes scholarly research, academic publishing, and in libraries, repositories, and archiving. Apart from education Web 2.0 is also used in social working with Social Work 2.0, public diplomacy and some governmental functions (William D., 2005; Jonathan B., 2009).
One other use encountered by me while working for a call centre which I realised now while studying Web 2.0 is the group messaging. While working for call centre we used to have pick up and drop service as we used to work at night. Every night we used to get message about the timing of the pick up and the car number. This message always ended with Web 2.0 or SMS 2.0. After researching it now I came know that group messages can be send using the SMS 2.0 technology. It is also used in SMS marketing where the person subscribes for messages of his interest and those messages are delivered to him on a timely basis.
So what will Web 3.0 look like? Tim Berners-Lee perception of the Web included a scenario where autonomous agents and machine processing units will carry out actions on human’s behalf. Tim Berners-Lee stated that the next step after Web 2.0 will be likely to involve high power graphics. Ted Nelson, the inventor of hypertext is focusing on displaying documents including links in three dimensions. IBM is developing a new protocol Hyper Speech Transfer Protocol which allows users to create a network of voice sites or interconnected voice using mobile phones.

References:
Eggers, William D., 2005, “Government 2.0: Using Technology to Improve Education”
G. Oliver Young, 2007, “Efficiency Gains and Competitive Pressures Drive Enterprise Web 2.0 Adoption”
Klemperer, 2006, “Network Effects & Switching Cost”
Leibowitz and Margolis, 1994, “Network Externality: An Uncommon Tragedy”
Murugesan, 2007, “Understanding Web 2.0”
O'Reilly, 2005, 2007, “What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software”
Paul Anderson, 2007, “What is web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications”
Jonathan B., 2009, “The Role and Regulations for Technology in Social Work Practice and E-Therapy: Social Work 2.0. In A. R. Roberts (Ed)”