Web 2.0 - What is it?

The term ‘Web 2.0’ is often thrown around without much thought into what it actually means. Tim O’Reily, host of many ‘Web 2.0’ conferences and founder of O’Reily media, in 2005, describes ‘Web 2.0’ as:

“the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; 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,”

The term, ‘Web 2.0’, though may be used with the following definitions:

• “Second generation internet” (SEM Glossary)
• “A new way of thinking about the web which provides tools and functionality for publishing, collaboration, and information access that normally existed only in the realm of desktop computing with software packages like Microsoft Office. Sometimes called "web as platform." (IDAHO Commission for Libraries)
• Websites which allow for “User created content” (Wolpert)

These short definitions all describe what is known as ‘Web 2.0’ without O’Reily’s waffling, though not one simple definition describes ‘Web 2.0’. What is known is that ‘Web 2.0’ applications can be comprised of many different types of technologies such as:

• AJAX: A web development technique that allows for live and dynamic content
• Tagging: Allows for a user to create a ‘keyword’ to describe content
• Blogs/Blogging: An online diary; such as this
• Wikis: User changeable sites
• RSS (Really Simple Syndication): Allows users to receive information updates when they want them through a special program called an RSS reader
• Podcasts/Vodcasts: Subscription to audio/video feeds

These particular types of technologies can be used in the following types of ‘Web 2.0’ sites:

• Social Networking: Allowing users to make contact with each other
• Aggregators: Sites that collect information from all different websites and display them on their website. Often an aggregator will have a them, and the links that these sites will have will be about the sites theme, similarly acting like a portal
• Mashups: Where content is taken from several websites and made into one new type of content

Works Cited
Idaho Commissions for Libraries. “Glossary” Idaho Commissions for Libraries 28 February 2009 http://libraries.idaho.gov/page/glossary

Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC . “Search Engine Watch SEM Glossary” Searchenginewatch.com 28 February 2009 http://searchenginewatch.com/define

Rainer, R. Kelly Jr, Turban, Efraim. Introduction to Information Systems 2– Supporting and Transforming Business Second Edition United States of America: John Wiley & Sons 2007

Wolpert, David K. “Glossary” Sales and Marketing Careers in the Tech Sector 28 February 2009 http://techjobsbook.com/glossary.html