Web 2.0

Barry Dow – Sp ‘08
ITEC #830 | Dr. Kim Foreman
Assignment #1 - Web 2.0

Web 2.0

On September 30, 2005, Tim O'Reilly wrote a piece, “ What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software,” in which he coined the term Web 2.0. Web 2.0 are web-based communities and hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis, and blogs). Technologies such as weblogs (blogs), social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of publishing), social software, and web application programming interfaces (APIs) provide enhancements over read-only websites. These communities provide a platform which aims to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users, by allowing them to link to videos, music, photos, and other social networking sites.

Even though many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web, the advancements of technology changes the ways software developers and end-users use webs. Presently, portable devices allow individuals to create and generate interactions and content that is published, managed and used through social networking applications.

Social Networking

Early social networking websites included Classmates.com (1995), which focused on ties with former school mates, and SixDegrees.com (1997), focusing on indirect ties. Innovations included not only showing who is "friends" with whom, but giving users more control over content and connectivity. Some applications enabled the graphing of a user's own social network - thus linking social networks and social networking. By 2005, one social networking service MySpace, was reportedly getting more page views than Google. Many businesses are embracing the web as a platform and using its access to global audiences.