What is Web 2.0

As a company we have found the improvements of web 2.0 has given us the opportunity to not only leverage our business through the infinite networking opportunities, but also through the opportunity to create new and useful applications for both ourselves and our clients.

The concept of web 2.0 is still new to many, so here is a brief overview.

So what is Web 2.0 and where did it come from?

• The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International.
• Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity.
• Tim O’Reilly describes "Web 2.0 as ultimately being a tipping point, not a starting point. And it's about business models and social adoption rates, as much as it is about technology."
• Web 2.0 isn't based on a just-invented new technology. Rather, it's based on a clever repackaging of older technologies
• An essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain.
• Social networking, blogs, wikis, and RSS are essentially the key tools that define it

How does it differ from Web 1.0?

• None of the trappings of the old software industry are present
• No scheduled software releases, just continuous improvement
• No licensing or sale, just usage
• No porting to different platforms so that customers can run the software on their own equipment
• Supple development processes must be adopted to create a state of "perpetual beta" in which services are upgraded at a sufficient rate of delivery to keep developers ahead of the competition

The Web 2.0 lesson:

• Ensure to leverage customer-self service and data management to reach out to the entire web
• Network effects from user contributions are the key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era.

Key Web 2.0 principles:

• The service automatically gets better the more people use it
• There has been an opening up of application program interfaces (APIs) so that anyone can develop for them
• Applications are increasingly data-driven, which has placed an importance on unique, hard-to-recreate source of data.

Features of the Web 2.0 era:

• The ultimate Web 2.0 application has immediate feedback and is able to update information without a deliberate refresh. In this context, you'll sometimes see these applications called rich Internet applications (RIAs).
• The new breed of application is generally understood to be dynamic (that is, content updates automatically) and collaborative (drawing information from multiple sources and from user contribution), embraces the long tail (that is, appeals to smaller niches in the community and not just the largest audience)—and still remains simple and intuitive.
• The rise of blogging:
o    Because search engines use link structure to help predict useful pages, bloggers, as the most prolific and timely linkers, have a disproportionate role in shaping search engine results
o    Because the blogging community is so highly self-referential, bloggers paying attention to other bloggers magnifies their visibility and power.
• What's dynamic about the live web is not just the pages, but the links. A link to a weblog is expected to point to a continuously changing page

A couple major benefits of Web 2.0

• RSS feeds can be utilised as a much stronger link than, say a bookmark or a link to a single page.
• There is good opportunity to capitalise on a fast-growing user base through social networking

To find out more about Web 2.0 is, please click on the link below:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=5