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" refers to a certain kind of rich internet applications and means:

• New kinds of webservices (e.g. see social computing)
• Improved user experience (e.g. AJAX)
• Both of these combined (webservices as rich internet applications)
• Mashups like webtops, virtual office etc. (this is a more recent trend)
• For some people, Web 2.0 means just just blogs and wikis. These are just part of it, but by no means to whole picture.

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)

Web 20.0 in context

“Web 2.0 was really about upgrading the "front-end" and user-experience of the Web. Much of the innovation taking place today is about starting to upgrade the "backend" of the Web and I think that will be the focus of Web 3.0 (the front-end will probably not be that different from Web 2.0, but the underlying technologies will advance significantly enabling new capabilities and features).” ([1], retrieved 14:22, 27 April 2007 (MEST))

Nova Spivak in his timeline of the past, present and future of the Web describes evolution of the web in terms of two variables: information connections and social connections, i.e. information links vs. people links plus.

Nova Spivack & Radar Networks Towards a WebOS

The idea being that information and social connections gain from more sophisticate tools and some sort of emerging intelligence as in [social software]] that gain be summarized as tools + services + aggregation)^scale (Lee Bryant, Becta review 2007).

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).

Tim O'Reilly's meme map (dated 2005) illustrates important concepts, some of which we explore in all relateds

Web 2.0 Meme Map, reproduced without permission

Improved user experience

Jared Spool [2] 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.

Web 2.0 in education

See:

• Personal learning environments (some)
• webtops
• social software
• e-learning 2.0

Links

See also other categories of rich internet applications, .e.g. virtual office and web widget. I don't know where to centralize :( - Daniel K. Schneider

• 100+ Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators: A Guide to RSS and More
• Web 2.0 awards 2007

References

Propaganda / Vision papers

• Farber, Dan (2007), From semantic Web (3.0) to the WebOS (4.0), ZDNet Article, feb 14, 2007, HTML.

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

• Rise of the Participation Culture

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

In education (practical/vision)

• D'Souza, Quentin (2007). Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators, A Guide to RSS and More, Version 2.0. PDF

• Warlick David (2006). A Day in the Life of Web 2.0, techlearning. HTML