Made-to-order internet
By: Cathy Zhang
Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: Health & Science
Web 2.0 is probably one of the most popular terms in the technology community, maybe especially so in the business technology world. If you are addicted to Facebook, you watch YouTube videos at least once a day, you have albums on Flickr, or you consult Wikipedia for your paper, you are taking advantage of Web 2.0. Yet, surprisingly, Web 2.0 is one of those buzzwords that no one really knows about.
Although no universal definition has arisen for Web 2.0, the simplest way to see it is: in Web 2.0, viewers create the content of websites as versus web editors in Web 1.0, or the web we had before Web 2.0. For example, Mount Holyoke's homepage (www.mtholyoke.edu) can be viewed as a typical Web 1.0 site, since most of the content is designed and published by the College. If you want to edit a page under the domain www.mtholyoke.edu, you either have to be the Web administrator or you must be granted the permission to do so. Facebook is a typical Web 2.0 site. Try to think about it conceptually: you are asked to create an account when you first visit the site and then you are given a template for your profile. Now everything is up to you - you can tell others about your favorite quotes, movies, books or create photo or video albums and add other users as friends. The important thing is, the Web administrator of Facebook probably does not know most contributors in person. In most cases, no central editor is present to approve the publishing of content. Here are some typical Web 2.0 sites:
Social Networking web sites
Examples: Facebook, LinkedIn.
Blogs, Photo/Video Sharing web sites, and Podcasts
Examples: MySpace, Blogspot, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter. Podcast is the latest innovation, an alternative to downloading or streaming.
E-commerce web sites
Examples: Amazon, ebay. Virtual marketplaces are typical Web2.0 applications, where users themselves make content and transactions.
Wiki sites
Example: Wikipedia. While Wikipedia.org is representative of such knowledge base system, you can actually build your own wiki site if you have a server to run a wiki engine. Check out: www.mohopedia.org, www.clubs.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu, www.classes.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu.
Although no universal definition has arisen for Web 2.0, the simplest way to see it is: in Web 2.0, viewers create the content of websites as versus web editors in Web 1.0, or the web we had before Web 2.0. For example, Mount Holyoke's homepage (www.mtholyoke.edu) can be viewed as a typical Web 1.0 site, since most of the content is designed and published by the College. If you want to edit a page under the domain www.mtholyoke.edu, you either have to be the Web administrator or you must be granted the permission to do so. Facebook is a typical Web 2.0 site. Try to think about it conceptually: you are asked to create an account when you first visit the site and then you are given a template for your profile. Now everything is up to you - you can tell others about your favorite quotes, movies, books or create photo or video albums and add other users as friends. The important thing is, the Web administrator of Facebook probably does not know most contributors in person. In most cases, no central editor is present to approve the publishing of content. Here are some typical Web 2.0 sites:
Social Networking web sites
Examples: Facebook, LinkedIn.
Blogs, Photo/Video Sharing web sites, and Podcasts
Examples: MySpace, Blogspot, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter. Podcast is the latest innovation, an alternative to downloading or streaming.
E-commerce web sites
Examples: Amazon, ebay. Virtual marketplaces are typical Web2.0 applications, where users themselves make content and transactions.
Wiki sites
Example: Wikipedia. While Wikipedia.org is representative of such knowledge base system, you can actually build your own wiki site if you have a server to run a wiki engine. Check out: www.mohopedia.org, www.clubs.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu, www.classes.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu.