Web 2.0: More Than Just a Buzz Word?

Web 2.0 embodies the evolution of the Internet from a static system of isolated albeit interconnected electronic libraries, into a dynamic consumer-driven information service. It does not refer to a new system of hardware and software to run the Internet. Instead, Web 2.0 represents a change in thinking of how the Internet can be used.

With the explosion of information over the past decade, and the hundreds of millions of users across the world, the internet is transforming into a system that not only provides the information you need, but one that also affords you a platform to share it with millions of other internet users. Today's Internet technology is so advanced, it gives you information before you even ask for it!

As websites share their information, the entire Web takes on new value. For instance, Google lets people run searches from other Web sites. The machines get into the act by acting as though the Internet were one giant computer.

It creates a dynamic platform of online services that builds on the accumulated participation of users. For instance, blogging is a Web 2.0 feature as opposed to personal websites - a Web 1.0 service. Blogs allow continuous modification by both the blogger and his/her audiences. Blogs offer access to previous material (archives) complete with a search and link function to websites with similar content.

The online version of Encyclopedia Britannica, built on Web 1.0 standards, lost out to Wikipedia, a typical Web 2.0 service. Wikipedia is not only free but lets users add any other information they might know about a particular subject.

"One of the key lessons of Web 2.0 is that users add value. But only a small percentage of users will go to the trouble of adding value to your Internet service via explicit means. Therefore, Web 2.0 companies set inclusive defaults for collecting user data and building value as a side-effect of ordinary use of the application. They build systems that get better the more people use them," explains Tim O'Reilly, an international publisher specializing on the computer industry.

O'Reilly is the organizer of a series of Web 2.0 conferences held annually since 2004 that bring together industry gurus in discussing trends that affect the internet. "The central principle behind the success of the giants born in the Web 1.0 era who have survived to lead the Web 2.0 era appears to be this: that they have embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence," says O'Reilly. Companies that have successfully complied with Web 2.0 features include Google search, Yahoo!, Amazon and eBay. As users add new content, and new sites, it is bound into the structure of the web by other users discovering the content and linking to it. Much as synapses form in the brain, with associations becoming stronger through repetition or intensity, the web of connections grows organically as an output of the collective activity of all web users.

A good example is the development of such open source software as Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP, or Python code. These software applications rely on the input of programmers scattered across the world. Anyone can download the software, use the code and modify according to own requirements. Each new version of the software builds upon the success or failures of previous releases. "Network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era," adds O'Reilly.

USA Today describes Web 2.0 as a development that merges the different pieces of computing, software and the Web and even blurs the distinction between users and websites. "Stuff you once did only on your PC, such as write documents, can be done on the Web. Stuff you used to do on one website at a time can now be done by mixing data from multiple sites, such as those Google Maps mash-ups. And users can now become part of websites such as Flickr, Wikipedia, GarageBand and MySpace."

http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2006-01-19-web-20_x.htm
http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html
http://techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/page4758.cfm