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Web 2.0
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On September 30, 2005, Tim O’Reilly wrote a piece summarizing his view of Web 2.0. The mind-map pictured above (constructed by Markus Angermeier on November 11, 2005) sums up some of the memes of Web 2.0, with example-sites and services attached.

Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity[citation needed], collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. According to Tim O’Reilly, “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of “Web 2.0″ have existed since the early days of the Web.
Defining “Web 2.0″

In 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. Technologies such as weblogs (blogs), social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, web application programming interfaces (APIs), and online web services such as eBay and Gmail provide enhancements over read-only websites. Stephen Fry (actor, author, and broadcaster) describes Web 2.0 as an idea in people’s heads rather than a reality. It’s actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider is what’s emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity if you like, simply because people can upload as well as download”.

The idea of “Web 2.0″ can also relate to a transition of some websites from isolated information silos to interlinked computing platforms that function like locally-available software in the perception of the user. Web 2.0 also includes a social element where users generate and distribute content, often with freedom to share and re-use. This can allegedly result is a rise in the economic value of the web as users can do more online.[citation needed]Tim O’Reilly regards Web 2.0 as business embracing the web as a platform and utilising its strengths (global audiences, for example).[citation needed] O’Reilly considers that Eric Schmidt’s abridged slogan, don’t fight the Internet, encompasses the essence of Web 2.0 — building applications and services around the unique features of the Internet, as opposed to building applications and expecting the Internet to suit as a platform (effectively “fighting the Internet”).

In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, O’Reilly and John Battelle summarized what they saw as the themes of Web 2.0:

* the web as a platform
* data as a driving force
* network effects created by an architecture of participation
* innovation in the 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 syndication of content and of service
* an end to the software-adoption cycle (the so-called “perpetual beta”)
* software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of the “Long Tail”
* ease of picking-up by early adopters

Tim O’Reilly provided examples of companies or products that embody these principles in his description of his four levels in the hierarchy of Web 2.0-ness:

* Level-3 applications, the most “Web 2.0″-oriented, which could only exist on the Internet, deriving their effectiveness from the inter-human connections and from the network effects that Web 2.0 makes possible, and growing in effectiveness in proportion as people make more use of them. O’Reilly gave 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 (now part of Google Docs & Spreadsheets) and iTunes (because of its music-store portion).
* Level-0 applications, which 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.