As I look at the definition of Web 2.0 on Wikipedia, one thing that stands out most to me is the “social” element. All the technologies - blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, APIs, etc. - at the very essence bring about a “connecting of people”. For example -
- Blogs help people post their thoughts and lives openly to others;
- Social bookmarking helps one share what they found on the Internet with others;
- Wikis let people document collaboratively.
Now, I will go one step further and say that these very Web 2.0 technologies allow a recipient of the information to quickly turn around and comment, reply or influence that original piece of information.
- I can post my comments openly about any blog posts I read; this allows me to either agree, disgaree or present a different perspective than the one presented by the author. My comments are literally physically tied to the original blog post and literally physically very close to the original blog post
- I can approve a social bookmark or bury it; my response is literally physically tied to the original bookmark and close to it
- In a wiki, I am one of the many authors; or I can post comments and influence readers of the original content
To me that is what Web 2.0 is all about - democratization of the Internet. It’s a step beyond what happened when web sites first came about. With web sites, everyone was posting content and was able to say things to a wide audience easily. Now, this next step in the evolution of the web is this: all the world wide users of the web decide which content is good and which content should be buried.
If you are interested in learning more about our authors, you can choose from the list to the right. An avid developer and technology leader, Amol helps marketers with CRM, e-mail marketing & automation. Most recently, Amol was responsible for an open API at leading email marketing firm ExactTarget. He is currently the VP of Technology at Right On Interactive. Read more from this authorRelated posts:
February 7th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
I agree - and I may be a dreamer but I believe that the Internet is democratizing the world. It’s providing a voice for the voiceless and crosses borders, governments and economies.