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Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004,[1] refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. O'Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International,
used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences, and since 2004 the phrase has been adopted by technical and marketing
communities. Its exact meaning has been open to debate, and some experts, notably Tim Berners Lee, have questioned whether it has a meaning at all[2].
Alluding to the version-numbers that commonly designate software upgrades, the phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web, with technologies such as weblogs, Social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds and other forms of many-to-many publishing; social software, Web APIs, Web standards and online Web services representing a significant change in the webs use and behaviour. Access to consumer-generated content facilitated by Web
2.0 brings the web closer to Tim Berners-Lee's original concept of the web as a democratic, personal, and DIY medium of communications.
As used by its proponents, the phrase "Web 2.0" can also refer to one or more of the following:
- The transition of websites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming computing platforms serving web applications to end-users
- A social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication,
decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and "the market as a conversation"
- A more organized and categorized content, with a far more developed deeplinking web architecture than hithertofore
- A shift in economic value of the Web, possibly surpassing that of the dot-com boom of the late 1990s
Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0
Proponents of the Web 2.0 concept say that it differs from early Web development (retrospectively labeled "Web 1.0") in
that it moves away from static web-sites, the use of search engines, and surfing from one website to the next, towards a more dynamic and interactive World Wide Web. Others argue that later
developments have not actually superseded the original and fundamental concepts of the WWW
[edit] The semantic web
Earlier users of the phrase "Web 2.0" employed it as a synonym for "Semantic Web," and indeed, the two concepts complement each other. The combination of social-networking systems such as FOAF and XFN with the development of tag-based folksonomies, delivered through blogs and wikis, sets up a basis for a semantic web environment.[citation needed]
[edit] Tim O'Reilly
In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle summarized key principles of Web 2.0 applications:
- the web as a platform
- data as the driving force
- network effects created by an architecture of participation
- innovation in assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development)
- lightweight business models enabled by content and service syndication
- the end of the software adoption cycle ("the perpetual beta")
- software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of The Long Tail.
- easy to pick up by early adopters
Tim O'Reilly gave examples of companies or products that embody these principles in his description of his "four plus one"
levels in the hierarchy of Web 2.0-ness: [4]
- Level 3 applications, the most "Web 2.0", which could only exist on the Internet, deriving their power from the human connections and network effects Web 2.0 makes possible, and growing in effectiveness the more people use them.
O'Reilly gives as examples: eBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, dodgeball, and Adsense.
- Level 2 applications, which can operate offline but which gain advantages from going online. O'Reilly cited Flickr, which benefits from its shared photo-database and from its community-generated tag database.
- Level 1 applications, also available offline but which gain features online. O'Reilly pointed to Writely (since 10 October 2006: Google Docs & Spreadsheets, offering group-editing capability online) and iTunes (because of its music-store portion).
- Level 0 applications would work as well offline. O'Reilly gave the examples of MapQuest, Yahoo! Local, and Google Maps. Mapping applications using contributions from users to advantage can rank as level 2.
- non-web applications like email, instant-messaging clients and the telephone.
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