Your Online Presence > Strategy & Development, Delivering Services Through Your Website
Using Your Computer > Using the Internet & Email

Web 2.0 The Internet Upgraded

By Simon Pavitt

The internet took off for most people following the mid-90's 'dotcom' boom and nowadays most people couldn't conceive of working without access to email and websites. Since then, no buzzword has been so over-used by website developers and marketers as ‘Web 2.0’.

So What Is Web 2.0?

Although the term 'Web 2.0' is bandied about by internet groupies, there is no one fixed definition. The term was coined by technology publisher and conference organiser Tim O'Reilly (who was also involved in the adoption of the term 'open source').

As it is not a technical specification or a piece of software, but refers to a different a way of doing things, it allows for different interpretations and opinion, and leaves it open to bandwagon jumping and hype.

However, a sign that Web 2.0 services will be hitting everybody shortly is that large internet companies, such as Google and Yahoo, are busy buying up smaller Web 2.0 companies.

In general Web 2.0 refers to the evolution of the internet so that:

• More things are done online
• Websites can more easily interact with one another
• There is greater user participation

The term relates to the concept of the internet being upgraded. Instead of it revolving around the use of Google search and email, with Web 2.0 there are additional ways of using the Internet to provide and find information, and to interact with clients and partners:

News feeds

Websites can generate RSS news feeds, a machine-readable format which makes the latest content available to a variety of different types of software. You can use it to be notified whenever the website is updated by using news aggregator software. This can either be installed on your own computer or you can make use of an online news reader service. If you wish, it's even possible to automatically put details of the information directly onto your own website.

Blogs

Blogs have been around for a while, having been the Webster Dictionary 'word of the year' for 2004. A blog (a contraction of the words 'web log') is simply a website that consists of an online diary where entries are displayed in reverse date order, with the newest at the top.

Having a standard structure means that there are many online services that allow you to set up your own blog with minimal technical skills. It's usually possible to categorise entries, giving visitors an alternative means of accessing the content, and for visitors to add their own comments and questions to entries. Many blogs provide links to other blogs on the same subject.

Many people use them to record what they are doing and what they are thinking. Often this revolves around what their cat has done lately. However, more organisation are starting to use them as an informal way of communicating with their stakeholders and the public, gaining feedback and building an online relationship.

Tags

Tags are a way of giving control to website users about how they categorise information. When contributing content to website, users can specify what keywords apply to it. Whilst librarians and information workers might worry that this arbitrary, ad-hoc way of categorising information will cause anarchy, it allows users not just control over the content of information but also it's structure. It is also much more dynamic as new tags appear and become popular, whilst others disappear from use and become redundant. Tags are often displayed as a tagcloud, where all the tags are displayed with the size in proportion to it's popularity.

One of the websites that brought this to a mainstream audience was the online photo website, Flickr. When uploading a photo, users can tag it with as many attributes as they wish. Other users can then find all then photos that have been tagged with a specific word, with a specific photo appearing under any of its tags.

Social networking

As everything happens online, it's easier to collate data about what other people are doing and find those that have similar interests or opinions. For example, users of Amazon will be familiar with the 'other people who bought this book also bought this' feature.

A classic web 2.0 website is the social bookmarking website Delicious. This allows people to keep a directory of their bookmarks online so that they are always available whatever computer they are using. But this simple change also means that it's possible to provide information such 'this link has been bookmarked by X people', thus giving you an idea of it's usefulness and to which people.

Technical Developments

There have been some broader technical developments which have allowed Web 2.0 to happen:

Ubiquitous Broadband

Having fast, fixed-cost, always-on internet connections means that many people are able to be online almost permanently, even when they are away from their office

Cheap Online Storage

the cost of online storage has dropped rapidly in recent years, making it feasible for online services to offer free storage to their users

Device Independence

the internet is no longer restricted to computers, with it being increasingly available through mobile devices such as personal organisers and phones. It is possible to take photos and upload them to Flickr using just your mobile phone, and many photos from live situations appear using this method.

Psychological Changes

Alongside these technical developments, there are also a couple of psychological changes that are taking place:

Software is Becoming a Service

More people are finding it convenient to use online software, with data being stored somewhere out on the internet. An online customer relations management service for keeping track of all contacts with clients means that all staff have access to the same information, whether they are in the office or not. It also means that the organisation does not have to worry about installing, upgrading and backing up software, although it has the disadvantage that without internet access the information is out of reach.

An example of an online service is Writley, an online word processor. This allows you to access and work on your document from any computer without having to worry about installing any software (or paying any licence fee). Although it doesn't offer the full range of functionality of Microsoft Word, for most purposes it is entirely adequate. And being online means it is easier to collaborate and share the document with other people without having to email large attachments and keeping track of which is the latest version.

The Audience Are Becoming Authors

adding content to websites is becoming less of a specialised skill, and the division between writers and readers of content is becoming blurred. More interaction is occurring online, with more people writing their own blogs, or adding comments and questions to other peoples content. Publishing photos online has become an almost trivial task, and many websites allow people to express their opinions, preferences or wishes online. To use a paraphrase, in the future everybody will have 15Mb of fame.

An example of a website which consists of the audience contributing their own opinions and priorities is 43things. People can to enter their goals in life, discover others with the same goal, report back on their progress and find out if other people thought the goal was worth achieving.

Remixing the web for social change

The power of these developments come from the relationships they enable. As non-profit organisations thrive on relationships, this 'social web' holds tremendous potential to transform their effectiveness and impact. These powerful new online tools provides new possibilities and opportunities to work towards achieving positive changes by:

• Mobilising new levels of grassroots participation with social networking
• Boosting public awareness of community issues through blogs
• Reaching people with podcasts and mobile messaging
• Creating new networks by carrying messages through RSS feeds
• Sharing and enriching knowledge through social bookmarking

Further information about Web 2.0

For examples of organisations using the capabilities of Web 2.0 in the voluntary sector go to Netsquared.org

For a definition of the term go to Wikepedia. 

See also Tim O'Reilly's explanation of its origin. 

For a list of the best 300 websites in different categories see Web2.0awards.org.