What exactly is 'Web 2.0' ?

For some time now the term web2.0 has been knocked around in the media, as the future of the Internet and possibly even the future of all communications and even 'the media' itself. So why is it then that something spoken of so frequently and so widely, is so hard to define.

To many the concept of 'web 2.0' is exactly that, a concept. A hypothetical and loosely defined term to explain -loosely- the future of the Internet. As web developer i often hear people talk about this new phenomenon and far too often read about 'it' in industry magazine. Yet like many others, I, previously passed aside any mention of the term, with a child-like 'la la la'. This wasn't because i was scared of it, but simply because up until recently i had completely dismissed the validity of using such a vaguely defined concept. It just seemed a little pretentious, a designers 'buzz word' if you like.

Rounded corners on designs, glass effect buttons, websites with several vowels dropped from the title A.K.A the 'Flickr effect' (Flickr, dabr, Twingr, workstir, to name but a few), and most importantly the all too seldom used beta icon! Argghhh! Is this really the future? Surely there is more to live and dream for!

Anyway, a few months back i got involved with the Manchester based 'Social Media Cafe'. A friendly group of folk from various if not all aspects of the Online Media world. As such ive come to meet, chat ,learn from and make friends with numerous people. As a result ive come to learn about and ultimately get addicted to the 'micro-blogging' world of Twitter. Pft! Facebook et al are soooo 2008! Subsequently i have been introduced to numerous oher website such as 12Seconds.tv, Flixwagon, BrightKite, SplitTweet, Twistory, WePapers and beyond.

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With each new site / service discovered it become evident -like a revelation- that 'Web2.0' was more than the pretentious magazine talk its commonly attributed to. Its true perhaps that in the main part it does exist in the rouded vowel dropping beta world of designers and journalists who still get their Gran Kids to help them email their latest Technology article to the editor on time.

However 'Web2.0' is in my opinion now becoming a reality, but is still in its infancy. Web 2.0 is an amalgamation of services, tools and platforms which are able to interact in an efficient -and most importantly- beneficial way. Perhaps the best example that i have seen of this to date is the Flixwagon - 12Second - Twitter interaction.

Using a small download for my mobile phone i can record videos of anything and everything i want. Whethers that a short clip of my Christmas dinner or live coverage of something worthy of International news. Once i stop filming the clip is automatically uploaded to my Flixwagon account with the title and description i set. Now by linking my 12Seconds and Flixwagon accounts, i can have Flixwagon, automatically send the first 12 seconds of my clip to my 12Seconds account. The beauty here being that 12Seconds allows users to publish short catchy videos of whatever they want.

Ok so my video is now on two website but no-one is going to view it unless i let them know about it. With web2.0 thats no problem either. Because I've already registered my Twitter.com account details with my 12Seconds account, i can have a short link to my video, and a description sent to my Twitter account. Within seconds of me using my phone to make the video, I've now got it on two websites, and its being advertised on a 3rd! Brilliant, sit back and watch the feedback roll in.

So there i was thinking ive got 'web2.0' comfortably defined when i get a confusing message from one of my Twitter friends. Sarah Hartley is Head of online editorial, MEN Media as well as being one of the organisers of Social Media Cafe Manchester. Having done a story about a petiton i was organising she announced the blog post thus;

"Ancoats residents use web2.0 to petition council".

'Web2.0? Its just an online petition"; i thought. Nothing special about it. Nothing new or innovative. Nothing 2010. nothing high-tech, no glass buttons, or dropped vowels, the site wasn't even called 'petitionr'. So how is it that this simple petition = Web2.0 ???. No longer was i convinced that i knew what the web was let alone this web2.0 nonsense. So i did the wise, if not the only thing i could. I asked Sarah, and a few other people in the know, what they think web2.0 is and what it means to us all.

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Name: Tim Difford
Age: 42
Blog: http://www.onegreenerday.com
Twitter: timdifford

What does the term 'web 2.0' mean to you?
I suppose it means, 'the conversation', which is a great movie btw.  I think the term Web 2.0 is a bit overblown really in that, when you're in the IT business you get to expect a big bang shift in functionality from one release to another, whereas Web 2.0 is a marketing term created for a concept rather than a product which is developed owned and released by one organisation.  Therefore, onlookers expecting a huge leap from what they've been used to doing on the internet to what is now possible are probably going to be abit disappointed by Web 2.0 as it represents evolution rather than the revolution suggested by the Web 2.0 monicker.  (let's face it, even every 'big bang' Windows release up to and including Vista still looks pretty much like Windows 95) Don't get me wrong, this evolutionary aspect is valuable as new products, services and behaviours morph into and across each other over time as individuals and organisations try to understand what it means to exist in a blended commercial and open-source environment.  The trouble is, the most exciting applications and services are still really only understood and appreciated by relatively early adopters.  Try explaining Twitter to your Dad, or scrobbling with Auntie Jean, (eugh!).  To be honest, even 'the kids' aren't down with some of this stuff, preferring the relative limitations of quick'n'easy 'walled garden' chat services, to the slow-burn benefits of growing a Twitter community around your own interests. Even for the digerati, desparately trying to hype up the 'now' with every tweet and blog post, must admit that a lot of the feel of the Twitter is much like the early days of blogging when comments-boxes were your cabal and people did things like *run through the comments naked*.  Even that though, felt a lot like a chat room and again the 'illusion' of hyper-community is no different to that experienced by early JANET-junkies and DARPA-bunnies Telnetting to BBSs back in the ''70s, 80s and 90s. So really, whilst I'd describe Web 2.0 as 'the conversation', it is probably fair to say that this conversation has been going on for years between those prepared to overcome the barriers to entry (9,600 baud modems, shaky software, command line interfaces).  OK it's easier to have 'the conversation' today, but chat clients which have been established for at least ten years still dominate sexier social media tools which are still just that bit to hard to cogently explain to the masses. In summary.  Web 2.0 = hyped misleading poster-boy for stuff we've been doing for years.  Web 2.0 = common sense made difficult.

What differentiates 'web 2.0' from the 'normal' web (web 1.0)?
Nothing much.  Lots of startups clamouring for attention, pretending that collaboration, creative commons and open-source hippiedom represent the holy grail whilst secretly crafting plans for world domination and hunting continually elusive VC funding.  The argarian utopia described by Social Media thought leaders sounds attractive until you realise that whilst collaboration is fun, relatively few individuals are making much money, other than the usual exceptions proving the rule.  Most of the Social Media thought leaders hyping up Web 2.0 are salaried - retained by corporates and trad media conglomorates and preaching to early adopters, students, academics and twinkies, many of whom have yet to feel the burden of responsibility in their lives.  When the bills start coming in, let's see how much fun it's gonna be sharing that pay £50k pay cheque with 50,000 collaborators.

Where do you see the true potential of 'web2.0' / where will the future of such technologies lead?
I haven't mentioned geo-location, which is, of course, the other big deal associated with Web 2.0.  It's still in the 'ooh this is fun' phase, so it's hard to see where truly indispensible geo-location apps will emerge from.  I'm sure they will and quickly too, but for now, most people are managing to live without it. The only thing I'm sure of is that Web 2.0 will definitely lead to Web 3.0 etc etc, but these big steps are pretty meaningless though, as they are trying to describe in big clumsy chunks a rapidly evolving directionless, random stampede of ideas and technologies which, by the law of averages, are gonna throw up the occasional compelling and life-changing application and service as they continue to explode in a fractal progression.

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Name: Carl Hardcastle
Employer: Recruitment Manager @ 'The Workplace'
Age: 36
Twitter: carlhardcastle

What does the term 'web 2.0' mean to you?
It means that 'old' established brands of google, ebay etc will have become unfashionable, establishment focused, archaic and irrelevant to teenagers and recent graduates. It will partly be an anti-establishment and partly because try as they might at google, facebook, bebo etc, there will always be a 'new kid on the block' with fresh ideas. The problem for the old brands on the market is the main reason they could exist – the very definition of the web is the ease of access for developers.

What differentiates 'web 2.0' from the 'normal' web (web 1.0)?
The main obvious difference will be a point of access. Web 2. will be accessed from smart phones, sat-navs, menus in restaurants,   cinema seats, bus timetables on street corners etc. The list is nearly endless. The one place you will not access it as default will be sat at a computer. That's so 2009. The other main difference will be the purpose of the web. Right now we use if for lifestyle / entertainment / research with a very human focused interface. Web 2 will have machines accessing the web to subconsciously assist humans. My car will access the web to download software for the ECU to manage the engine better for driving conditions – all in real time. My smart phone will tell me when my friends smart phone is in the building (gps) so that we can go arrange to go have a coffee. My Fridge will suggest recipes to me when I open it, by pre-scanning its contents, going to the web, and finding suggestions. My iPod will download tracks without my permission because it will know I'd buy it anyway. The list is seemingly endless. We won't go looking for information. It will come looking for us.

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Name: Sarah Hartley
Occupation: Head of online editorial, MEN Media
Employer: MEN Media
Website: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Blog: http://www.sarahhartley.wordpress.com
Twitter: Sarah_Hartley

What does the term 'web 2.0' mean to you?
In two words - participatory platform.

What differentiates 'web 2.0' from the 'normal' web (web 1.0)?
Web 1.0 was the earlier incarnation and so doesn't really exist any more. From a publishing point of view, those were the days of destination websites where people attempted to own "their space" and expected others to visit, contribute and otherwise assist them. Web 2.0 saw a massive explosion of online tools to enable people to create, curate and mash-up their own and others content and publish it themselves.

Where do you see the true potential of 'web2.0' / where will the future of such technologies lead?
Some say that we're already moving on from web 2.0 to something else :) Whatever that ends up being, the upside will be further democratization of information plus even more tools to allow individuals greater creativity and ultimately (hopefully) freedoms. This is also contributing to a continuing erosion of trust in establishment - governments, media organisations, institutions etc. which will impact in society in ways we don't yet fully understand.

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So thats made it a bit clearer then!

Tags: web2.0, #smc_mcr