Week 4 What is Web 2.0?

Another week has gone by and I am closer to figuring out what this Web 2.0 business is all about. According to Dr Tama Leaver (2010), it is all about users conversing with each other, the read/write web, the provision of tools with which to converse, participate and exchange ideas, and best of all you don't have to know coding to use it! It includes tools and platforms which allow people to interact with each other and share ideas and content. These include social bookmarking, blogging, social networks, and platforms for content and video sharing. Tim O'Reilly, who runs some giant publishing company, is considered the Web 2.0 guru.

O’Reilly (2005) summarises the main attributes of Web 2.0 which make it different from Web 1.0. Firstly, Web 2.0 is about services rather that software packages. Secondly, users are co-developers and with more use, data becomes richer, harnessing a collective intelligence, and authors are no longer reliant on knowledge of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to be able to produce work. In Web 2.0 the content and form of a document is separated (Leaver, 2010). And thirdly, the PC is no longer the only connecting device as hand held devices such as phones are able to connect to the web (O’Reill, 2005).

And then there is RSS (Really Simple Syndication) - really! With RSS you can catch up an all the latest updates from sites you subscribe to without having to go check them all to find out if there is anything new. (Leaver, 2010) What a great time saver!

So get ready for a change from consumer culture to the culture of participation! (Leaver, 2010)

O'Reilly, T. 2005. What is Web 2.0. Design Patterns and Business Models for the next Generation of Software. Accessed June 2011 from http://oreilly.com
Leaver, T. (2010) ... and what is the World Wide Web? [Lecture]. Retrieved from http://dbs.ilectures.curtin.edu.au/lectopia/lectopia.lasso?ut=2417