DO YOU BELIEVE IN WEB 2.0?

Introduction

• The intention behind the creation of the phrase ?Web 2.0? was to indicate an understanding that the web has undergone a step change, and that the business models in use today are a world apart from those being used in the early days of the internet. Web 2.0 is intended to delineate this new era, an era in which the software which powers the web has become less important than the services which the web enables.

• The concepts behind Web 2.0 are altering the way in which companies operating online are viewing the web. However, Web 2.0 will not in itself change the web, other than by encapsulating the characteristics that are making up these next generation internet businesses.

• It has been suggested that Web 2.0 is simply a stepping stone on the way to Tim Berners-Lee?s vision of the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is a vision of a web based on knowledge representation, in which not only the data structures are described, but also the meaningful relationships between the individual data items.

The business angle - characteristics of Web 2.0 businesses

• Tim O?Reilly?s seminal article neatly lays out a series of characteristics which Web 2.0 companies display. Not all companies display all of these characteristics, but when trying to decide if a company deserves the moniker, ?a Web 2.0 business?, this is a useful list to refer to.

• The seven core competencies are:
  • Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability;

  • Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them;

  • Trusting users as co-developers;

  • Harnessing collective intelligence;

  • Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service;

  • Software above the level of a single device;

  • Lightweight user interfaces, development models, and business models.

The technology angle - expanded definitions and impact

• RSS - Really Simple Syndication:
  • A ?push? mailing service that has recently been reinvigorated through its incorporation into personalised home pages;

  • RSS allows developers to create applications from third party material that is automatically updated.

• Mashups - a combination of two or more web based resources to create a new application.
  • A good example is Housingmaps.com - a for-profit project that combines housing classifieds from Craigslist with Google Maps. Houses are organised by price and whether they are for sale or for rent.

  • The most obvious applications will be in the area of local classified advertising, and local business advertising. Regional newspapers can also benefit from incorporating maps into their services in order to provide users with a visual connection between their location and recent events.

• Ajax - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
  • A combination of existing technologies such as JavaScript, XHTML and XML. Ajax allows a significant portion of a web site?s data to be downloaded to a user?s computer meaning that each page?s features can be accessed more easily. The result is a far richer and more seamless experience of the web, as access to a web application?s features does not require repeated loading of HTML pages.

Case Studies

• del.icio.us - at the forefront of the social bookmarking phenomena, providing a service which allows its 300,000+ users to tag bookmarked pages, view lists of bookmarks created by others, or view all bookmarks tagged with the same keywords.

• Yellowiki - a business listings site that allows users to submit business information in an online Yellow Pages format. Businesses can enter their own information in multiple categories for between $50 and $100.

• Google Local - incorporates a mapping service, local search and business listings with user reviews.

• FeedBurner - provides online publishers with a variety of analysis a