Defining Web 2.0
A couple of weeks ago the ICT Foresight panel got together to talk about social networking. The term ‘Web 2.0′ was unsurprisingly used a great deal. One of our academic colleagues, John Taylor, suggested that it might be good to start by deciding what we actually meant by Web 2.0.
The clearest thing I’ve found so far is the much-cited piece by Tim O’Reilly. I also quite like this piece from the Pew Internet project. It distinguishes between Web 2.0 activities/behaviours (like displaying photos), and the use of different sites with different characteristics. One example they give is that use of (web 2.0?) photobucket has increased whilst use of (web 1.0) kodakgallery is static. The behaviours are the same, but the sites have developed (improved?) In other words:
Whatever language we use to describe it, the beating heart of the internet has always been its ability to leverage our social connections.