Web 2.0 Discussion

What better way to start discussing Web 2.0 then with understanding what Web 2.0 is.

There are many definitions of Web 2.0 that exist today. Many industry analysts and media channels have coined their own understanding of the term. Some of them are below:

"Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Great list of definitions were published by ReadWriteWeb:

John Battelle (talking about upcoming conferences): "eTech is where the seeds of new and interesting technologies are first discovered, whilst Web 2.0 is where they take root in the soil of business."

Kingsley Idehen: "...a Point of Presence on the Web for exposing of invoking Web Services and/or Syndicating or Subscribing to XML based content."

Wirearchy: "According to the experts, Web 2.0 is on its way to the workplace soon – it's an infrastructure that's decentralized and more open than that which exists today."

Jon Udell (as quoted in a classic essay by Tim O'Reilly): "Don't think of the Web as a client-server system that simply delivers web pages to web servers. Think of it as a distributed services architecture, with the URL as a first generation "API" for calling those services."

The World 2 Come (talking about the Web 2.0 Conference in October 04): "The conference will debut with the theme of 'The Web as Platform,' exploring how the Web has developed into a robust platform for innovation across many media and devices - from mobile to television, telephone to search."

Deep Green Crystals: "The next generation of web applications will leverage the shared infrastructure of the web 1.0 companies like EBay, Paypal, Google, Amazon, and Yahoo, not just the "bare bones transit" infrastructure that was there when we started..."

Jeff Bezos: "web 2.0...is about making the Internet useful for computers."

computeruser.com: "Yesterday’s challenge of producing elegant and database-driven Web sites is being replaced by the need to create Web 2.0 'points of presence'"

Adam Rifkin: "They don't see that the power of Weblications is that "simplicity and flexibility beat optimization and power in a world where connectivity is key", as Adam Bosworth put it."

Mitch Kapor: "The web browser and the infrastructure of the World Wide Web is on the cusp of bettering its aging cousin, the desktop-based graphical user interface for common PC applications."


Finally, my personal definition of Web 2.0 is simple. While Web 1.0 as we know is publisher-centric, "Web 2.0 is a user-centric web service with users behind the wheel".


What is YOUR understanding and definition of Web 2.0? Post below.

Best,

__________________
Artashes Toumanov | Talkio Inc.

After reading the definitions from various sources on net and in this forum, it is clear that a consensus doesn't exist over its definition.

If you would remember 2001, when many dot-coms started to fail, it was realized that web was overhyped. This term "Web 2.0" came into existence in one of the brain storming sessions between MediaLive and O'Reilly, but i am sure even they didn't expect the term to get so much attention and purpose as it has attained now.

Here is what I understand of Web 2.0 after having inputs from various sources. This represents my views and if I am wrong, do let me know. For that is what i joined the forum for, to share knowledge and information about Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a newer version of web where the power and freedom is passed back to user, rather than the site-owner. Democracy, Ajax and user-centric approach are what makes it different from what web used to be prior to 2001 or in early part of 2001 before the bubble was burst. Practically it is change in mindset and approach adopted by webmasters and companies whereby technology and steps taken provide users the power and freedom which they should have otherwise. Just to emphasize over this, lets consider example of registeration on a site. Earlier the approach was to make people register to access or view even minute details. I don't generalize this but that was basically the mindset of many. But now, more and more sites have opened their doors and pages to guests. Registration is used only where necessary, otherwise visitors and guests can still browse pages. In a way this is a good change because user has frredom to enjoy without being under compulsion to register.

That is in nutshell what i have understood about this term. Its more of transition in mindset and approach than anything else. It is same web platform which used to exist earlier but with a different approach.