Web 2.0

Definition

Web 2.0 is one of those "buzz words" like DHTML that do not have a clear meaning but does refer to a trend or practise that does favor new technologies.

Web 2.0" referes to a certain kind of rich internet applications and means:

• New social webservices (see social computing) or at least webtops, virtual office etc.
• Improved user experience (e.g. AJAX)
• Both of these combined

Examples (see also)

• DITA Storm
• Through the web editors
• Virtual offices, (some, i.e. in the sense of Office 2.0)
• Webtops
• Social software applications (most)

Specifically for education (in this wiki)

• Personal learning environments (maybe some)
• LAMS
• microworlds (some)

Old vs. new web services

According to Tim O'Reilly (2005), Web 2.0 can be defined through examples of how typical web services did evolve. E.g.

Web 1.0 (past)	Web 2.0 (future)
Photo-albums	Flickr-like albums
FTP or http-based downloads	BitTorrent
mp3.com	Peer-to-peer solutions, like Napster
Britannica Online	Wikipedia
personal websites	blogging
publishing	participation
content management systems	wikis
directories (taxonomy)	tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness	syndication

What is common about these example is that “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” (O'Reilly, 2005), in other words Web 2.0 is strongly related to social computing and collective intelligence (the "wisdom of the crowd").

In addition, Web 2.0 is related to enhanced user experience and webservices standards and APIs that allow for more collaboration between machines (data exchange is usually XML-based).

Improved user experience

Jared Spool [1] points out the power of APIs: A very good example is Google Maps that allows anyone to overlay data onto any place that Google Maps can show. E.g. here is the place where these very words have been written.

See AJAX for the most popular technology used, but rich internet applications can be based on many other frameworks.

Relation to semantic web

A few years ago, there was a lot of talk about the semantic web. This didn't happen so far ;). So more and more it appears that Web 2.0 means actually going back to the roots of academic Internet in the 80' and very early 90' which was all about communication and exchange. Internet/Web is also (and has been most of the time) about being easy, open and flexible.

References

• O'Reilly, Tim, What Is Web 2.0 - Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, HTML

• Spool, Jared M., Web 2.0: The Power Behind the Hype, HTML