Web 2.0

Have you ever wondered just what Web 2.0 is? Well Gina Hughes has a nice overview of this cultural phenomenon on her blog:http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/1079


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What is Web 2.0?

Wed Jul 19, 2006 6:59AM EDT

I had the same question when I first heard the term. To simplify things, Web 2.0 is what people consider "the second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online". Ok, I took those exact words from Wikipedia, which is a good example of this new Web 2.0 era. In the past we had encyclopedias, these days we also have wikis or wikipedias, which are updated more frequently.

O'Reilly Net has a much more extensive review on the matter, and they are an excellent resource because they pretty much coined the term during a brainstorming session. Unfortunately, O'Reilly Media is also in the process of registering the term Web 2.0 as a service mark, so they can continue to use this term for their annual conference. I'm sure this will cause a lot of confusion for everyone in the future if we choose to adopt this name, then again, we may already be too late.

Aside from being a buzzword, Web 2.0 also refers to this exciting exchange of ideas where everyone plays a part. Whether they choose to do it via social networking sites like MySpace, blogs, video/audio podcasts, social bookmarking, photo communities and wikis to name a few, users are encouraged to create, contribute, or participate in these online communities. With all these applications comes a new language we must learn, and a new way of designing websites.

Just take a look around the web, and you will notice a lot of great companies out there that offer easy ways to share video, share bookmarks, create personal or business blogs, or even make phone calls over the Internet. You'll recognize Web 2.0 websites by their tag clouds, rounded corners, gradients and short punchy names with elements of english words, well at least that's what Reddit's how-to-video says.

While many have a problem with the label of this new phase, there is no denying that the web has certainly changed in the last few years, and will continue to do so. Believe it or not, the term Web 3.0 is already out there. Since I couldn't possibly explain Web 2.0 as a whole in this post, I will leave you with a few great links to help you learn more about it, or just have fun with it.

* Tech Crunch reviews new Web 2.0 products
* Intro to Web 2.0
* Buzzword Hell attempts to kill the buzz words
* the Social Software weblog
* Edugadget Web 2.0 for teachers
* Test your 2.0 knowledge
* What is Web 2.0 and Should You Care?
* ZDNet on Web 2.0
* Wired's Are you ready for Web 2.0
* Web 2.0 Awards

So what does Web 2.0 mean to you?

Hey I did not sign in as me, but this is from Jeannine.