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Getting To Know Web 2.0 - Brown Bag Notes

By newquisk - Posted on 10 April 2006

What is Web 2.0?
A wave of new Web sites (as well as some not so new ones) that focus on the user experience, focusing primarily through three areas:

Socialization: The ability for users to interact with one another, easily sharing collective information.
Collaboration: The ability to work on long-distance projects in a variety of ways.
Web Services: Almost all Web 2.0 have "Web services" through which they share their information with other sites.

They share a few negative aspects as well:

Almost all are perpetually in beta.
They're anything but private: Web 2.0 sites are social in nature, which means you need to share your information with them (in the hopes that others will share their information with you). Don't share if you don't want your interests to be accessible to anyone.
They hold your data: Your photos, documents and preferences reside on their server, not your computer. A hallmark of most of these sites is that they use Web standards, such as XML, so that you can get your data back out, but they still have a copy of it.
They use advanced Web technologies: Don't even try them with anything other than the latest versions of Firefox or IE (and sometimes, only Firefox)

* This is my definition of Web 2.0; the more formal definitions (which I link to in the "Web 2.0 References" section) deal more with the technical specifics of what is Web 2.0; I'm talking about the effects)

Terminology

Tagging: Using keywords to describe data; rather than try and organize content into folders, individuals "tag" an item with a keyword, and then build lists based on keywords. It's a real-world application of metadata: data used to describe data. Examples: del.icio.us, flickr
AJAX: The acronym stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, and provides a useful way to make forms and Web pages feel dynamic and responsive by preloading chunks of information before the user needs them. Examples: Google Local.
RSS: Really Simple Syndication is one of the services that web sites use to share information with one another. Example: Bloglines, Technorati

Examples

flickr: Flickr is a photo sharing Web site in which members upload and share images. Images can be public or private; anyone can comment on public images; friends and family comment on private ones.

del.icio.us: A social bookmarking Web site -- people post bookmarks for sites that interest them to de.icio.us. When they do so, they can see who else has linked to these pages -- and can in turn explore the bookmark collections of those people. Folks on del.icio.us can also share bookmarks with one another and set up inboxes to watch specific tags.

Google Local: A prime example of AJAX in action -- Google uses AJAX to make moving around a map as easy as clicking and dragging.

http://www.google.com/maps

It's easy-to-access Web services allow programmers to create "mashups" that combine Google's maps with other datasets, as UFO Maps does with nationwide UFO sightings, and Frapper does by showing where folks who belong to a certain group (like fans of a podocast) live.

MySpace: The granddaddy of social networking sites. After joining, you affiliate yourself with different groups, from colleges to businesses to high schools, and then start finding friends. Groups -- from bands to alumni organizations -- use it to coordinate online

Blogger: Quick and easy to use self-publishing. Blogger allows you to easily establish a Web presence and generates the RSS feeds for you.

Technorati: A site focusing on exploring and tracking the blogosphere. It uses tags to describe blogs and blog content while pulling in RSS feeds to show the latest stories from each blog.

Basecamp: Basecamp is a project collaboration Web service. It allows multiple people to work on a project, including creating deadlines, milestones, task lists and documents; the pay versions also allow filesharing. And it can all be tracked through RSS.

Writely: A Web-based work processor designed for over-the-Web collaboration. Just purchased by Google, and presently not accepting invitations. In theory you can upload your Word documents, allow others to edit them, then download them again to your computer.

http://www.writely.com/

Pulling It All Together

Bloglines: A Web-based reader that allows you to keep track of your RSS feeds.

Badges & Blogrolls: Web 2.0 sites want you to share your content, and do so through badges (e.g. Flickr) and blogrolls (e.g. Del.icio.us). These are snippits of JavaScript and HTML code that you can easily cut and paste into your Web site to show off your photo galleries, links, and other content.

http://protonville.blogspot.com

Protopage: A browser-based, shareable "desktop" that allows you to add notes, widgets, rss feeds and much more. A tool like this allows you to share your virtual desktop with others (but they can't edit it).

References
"What is Web 2.0?" by Tim O'Reilly