Web 2.0
Web 2.0
What is Web 2.0?
Web2.0 describes the next generation of web applications. These programs assist with interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and partnership on the Internet. Web-based communities, hosted services, social networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, and blogs are all examples of Web2.0. These sites let users interact with other users to alter or change site content, the polar opposite of sites that limit user interaction to passively reading words on the page.
Who Benefits from Web 2.0?
Traditional industry benefits from web 2.0. The first reason is that sites that utilize web 2.0 technology allow users to interact with a company’s products. Websites that allow customers to shop an online catalog, order items, and pay for their purchases are utilizing one of web 2.0’s basic functions. Companies or websites that utilize groupware are also an example of web 2.0.
Companies further benefit from Web 2.0 by utilizing remote desktop software for replacing face-to-face meetings with web conferencing or an online meeting. Going one step further, businesses can use similar remote access software to create a company remote computer support team and therefore assist customers and employees with tech support issues via remote assistance.
Education and academics benefit from web 2.0 because students can better identify with the platform than they can through passive book learning. Because today’s children grew up with the interactivity of video games and the audio-visual stimulation of television, interactive web applications, distance learning software, e‑learning software are naturally the next step towards educating future generations.
The public as a whole benefits from web 2.0 because they have a wider smorgasbord of information readily available already from the Internet, and web2.0 applications really make them a part of developing the world they live in. Whether it is writing a politician directly from that representative’s webpage about a political concern, or doing their Christmas shopping from the comfort and convenience of their own homes, the public really has a role in using content they like while leaving behind old technologies they no longer need. Or enjoying your favorite webcast speaker as they deliver the latest news to your desktop.
How Does Web 2.0 Work?
Web 2.0 really is not a “thing” that can readily be explained as to how it operates. Instead, web2.0 is more a concept, an idea; it is the realization that by bringing users into the web experience, more people will become involved and shape the way our world thinks about each other and how they use technology. Social networking sites where users can ask questions and receive answers is a great example of how users across the globe interact with each other; how they learn from one another without considering race, gender, age, religion, and all types of interpersonal hang-ups. Others look to interact in real time via free web conference or free online meeting software.
Web2.0 “works” by all Internet users coming together to contribute. It exists because web users want to be more connected; after all, isn’t that what the World Wide Web is all about? Being connected?