I generally agree that this is a term without much useful meaning. If you ask people what Web 2.0 is, they will start rattling off a bunch of techniques and uses that generally add up to something like these maps: http://ru3.com/luc/uploaded_images/web2-big-745097.jpg http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/archives/web20.jpg http://hinchcliffe.org/img/web2architecture.jpg http://hello.eboy.com/eboy/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/FTN_CommunicationCity_... As Richard Feynman said, you can know the names of every bird in the world without knowing a bit about birds. If I were to characterize what these Web 2.0 examples hold in common, it is that they are all companies that have attracted funding or make money on the web over the last few years. I guess in some sense, that's what the 2.0 means, although it suggests some kind of breaking point with earlier approaches to design. (Does that mean that Amazon and eBay were 2.0 before their time?) So, I think it is largely a short way to say "a business model and design approach consistent with what is popular at the moment on the web." I think "social software" and "social media" fall into a similar trap: show me software that isn't social! "Sociable media" does suggest something different, as does the increasingly frequently heard "user-created media." These are still very broad terms, but they shift the focus to what people are doing when they interact with various sites and technologies, rather than (e.g.) how the website loads current data into view (AJAX, CSS, curvy bits, OpenID, etc.). - Alex On 4/20/07, Amy S. Bruckman <asb@cc.gatech.edu> wrote:
To pop up a level a bit in the conversation.... Do folks here actually use the term? Should we all use it or not?
The Wikipedia definition says Web 2.0 sites are ones that "that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users." My reaction to that is: um, what did you think the web was doing before? =:-)
YMMV,
Amy
Amy Bruckman Associate Professor College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0760
Tel: 404-894-9222 Fax: 404-894-3146 Email: asb@cc.gatech.edu Web: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/
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