What+is+Web+2.0?

=**What is Web 2.0?**= Below your name please add your understanding of what Web 2.0 is...
 * Pre-assessment**

Janice Web 2.0 is a series of free tools located on the web that are able to be used in education to enhance, enrich, and enliven the curriculum.

Kimberly - A socially connected web that let's people interact with the web through blogs, wiki's and podcasting.

Brooke - online, social tools that allow for collaboration and sharing. Some examples include wikis, blogs, and podcasting.

Here is what I have so far: media type="custom" key="608857"
 * Post Assessment**- After we examine Web 2.0 below we will go to a voice thread I have created and add our comments to a group of 4 photos that represent Web 2.0. I started the voice thread but all I have put on it so far are bibliographic comments for the pictures, and one comment on one of the pictures because I couldn't resist trying out my microphone. All four pictures included are within the Creative Commons license and are free to be used for educational purposes. It is my hope that we will create the voice thread on Web 2.0 together during the coming weeks. The address of the voice thread is: [|http://voicethread.com/share/88411/.]

In his book, [|Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet---Better, Faster, Easier], Mark Frauenfelder calls Web 2.0 a "catch all term for Web sites and technologies that combine user-created content, social networking, and new publishing technologies such as blogging, podcasting, and wikis. Web 2.0 sites such as flickr.com, digg.com, dodgeball.com, and technorati.com make use of user-created content and social networking" (59). (Frauenfelder, Mark. __Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet---Better, Faster, Easier__. New York, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007.) So, is that what [|Web 2.0] is? [|Websites, and technologies driven by user content]. Yes, and no. It is only part of what Web 2.0 is all about?

In the first chapter of [|Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's User,] Elizabeth Black defines Web 2.0 by what it is not. She says it is not related to Internet2 (Internet2 is the back bone not-for-profit consortium that develops network technologies for education and research- it is how we can do video-conferencing in our schools- my school district belongs to it through the MCIU). And if the truth be known, no one really knows what it means... [|the term was coined as a marketing ploy] to get people to attend a new conference. The word was first coined in October of 2004 in a business meeting and the people who coined it have been back peddling and front peddling ever since to keep up with the monster of a term they created. The man pictured above is Tim O'Reilly who is credited with creating the term and on his [|O'Reilly Radar Blog] he defines Web 2.0 as " the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are the ones that make the most of... the platform." He further outlined it in an essay as seven principals: 1: The web is a platform (meaning application are delivered over it... we are starting to see this with PhotoShop Express and others) 2: Harnessing collective intelligence (what I consider mod mentality when misused- but I like twitter!) 3: Data is the next "Intel inside" (all Internet application are backed up by huge databases of information and API's- Application Programatic Interface helps us get at it- like Amazon's huge library of books- when I need a book cover picture... that's where I go!) 4: End of the software release cycle (things are continually updated on the Web as bugs are fixed) 5: Lightweight programming model (simple standards will make things work better, faster, cheaper, easier on the Web. RSS is O'Reilly's example) 6: Software above the level of a single device (software that bridges the gap between the computer and other devices- the computer facilitates the use of the other devices... like iTunes) 7: Rich user experience: (it draws users back over and over again- Ajax made it possible... Ajax transfers pieces of date in the background so we don't see it on the web page but it updates part of web pages without reloading- it makes streaming, live blogging possible) (7 Principles from pgs 1-3 of __Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's User__.)

But, that is not how [|Tim Berners-Lee]- the man credited with starting the Internet- sees it. He calls it a piece of jargon! He says nobody even knows what it means. The Web as he created it is all about connecting people... that was his original idea in Web 1.0. He says, "If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along" (pg. 3 of __Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's User__) The current emphasis on collaboration and collective intelligence is all part of Berners-Lee's original vision.

Again I ask what is Web 2.0?

[|John C. Dvorak]says there really is no Web 2.0... he says what we are seeing is an evolution of the Web, not a revolution. He says the so called Web 2.0 products such as podcasts and blogs, are all built on technology from the 1990's (pg. 4 of __Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's User)__. He did admit on his [|Tech5 report]podcast that we have yet to see the bubble for Web 2.0, but he says it is coming. He is referring to the Internet bubble of Web 1.0 which saw the downfall of many Internet companies. He says what is left has become known as Web 2.0. On his podcast Cranky Geeks, he indicates that the bubble will be bursting soon: Check out [|Cranky Geeks #76]. So, his take (and I tend to see it this way now) is that Web 1.0 was the bubble of Internet companies that went belly up a few years ago, again businesses. The ones that survived the bursting bubble (Amazon, eBay etc.) are now Web 2.0... but again it is business. Gaming companies are part of this Web 2.0 bubble... is that why educators are being told to look toward gaming as the future of education?

The statement I made above is what I thought Web 2.0 was before I did the research below. I agreed with Frauenfelder, to me Web 2.0 was an educational medium, a platform, a bunch of Web sites and technologies driven by educational users. I had no idea that the concept originated in the business world and has been around for almost four years. This youtube video is from February 23, 2005 even though it was posted in 2006.

media type="youtube" key="nsa5ZTRJQ5w&hl=en" height="355" width="425" Jutecht. "Web 2.0." YouTube. 8 Mar. 2006. 21 Mar. 2008 <[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsa5ZTRJQ5w&feature=related>.]

So, is [|Web 2.0] a marketing tool or is it more than that? "It's one of the biggest buzzwords out there, but what exactly does it mean? Andy Gutmans of [|Zend] defines [|Web 2.0] and explains how it's changing the face of the Internet." Before watching this video and doing a little searching, I thought [|Ajax] was a hero of [|Greek Mythology], a [|soccer team (excuse me, football club) in Amsterdam], or the [|cleanser] that gets rid of my bathtub ring. I did not know that [|AJAX] was something completely different. media type="youtube" key="0LzQIUANnHc&hl=en" height="355" width="425" Flexbeta. "What is Web 2.0?." YouTube. 10 Sep. 2006. 21 Mar. 2008 <[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LzQIUANnHc&feature=related>.]

Mashups had me confused until I figured out it could be what others call Application Programmatic Interface or [|API] which is what Google Maps does... another program can run the software and talk to one another so you can be on say a real estate site and use Google Maps right in the site to find directions. I think Andy Gutmans is wrong because not everyone has heard of mashups... oh wait... we have now.

I know that asynchronous means not at the same time from an online class I took with people from all over the world. We never were online at the same time yet we interacted. So, what does that have to do with programing? Well, it's a timing thing for websites. According to http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/default.asp it is "a type of programming made popular in 2005 by Google (with Google Suggest). AJAX is not a new programming language, but a new way to use existing standards. With AJAX you can create better, faster, and more user-friendly web applications." And that has made a difference in the Internet, it is why we can move from the read only Web to the Read/Write Web (what I thought Web 2.0 meant in the first place). So, AJAX is what makes Google Docs possible. AJAX allows the JavaScript on your computer already to trade data with a web server, without reloading the entire page. AJAX allows web pages to reuest small bits of information from a server instead of reloading whole pages. It makes Internet applications possible because they can be smaller, faster, and more user-friendly. You can use [|Google Docs] or [|ZOHO] writer right from the Web instead of having to download [|NEO Office] or whatever the PC version is called. With [|AJAX] working in the background a web page can make a request to, and get a response from a web server - without reloading the page. The user stays on the same page and doesn't even notice that scripts request pages, or send data to a server in the background. It changes the way we interact with the [|Web] and makes the experience seamless. It is like working on [|Microsoft Word] at home except it is all done on the [|Web].
 * Ajax**: According to Wikipedia, AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. (The assumption on my part is that this is the Active X control that has to be downloaded to my laptop before I could edit my School Wires web page.)

As a journalism student I studied about [|Marshall McCluhan]’s speech to broadcasters in which he coined the famous phrase “The medium is the message.” That was the 60's... **now we are dealing now with a new medium but the concept is still the same. Web2.0 is nothing more than a new version of the medium… it therefore is also the message**… once we get our head around the concept that the medium is the message, we know that the rules change as the medium expands… but Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media explains the concept better than I could. O'Reilly Media often takes credit for coining and popularizing the phrase Web 2.0. But even Tim O'Reilly doesn't like to be pinned down to give one definitive answer about what Web 2.0 is all about... he's back and front peddling even in this video.

media type="youtube" key="CQibri7gpLM&hl=en" height="355" width="425" Bhatt, Kamla. "Tim O'Reilly on What is Web 2.0?." YouTube. 21 May 2007. 20 Mar. 2008 <[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQibri7gpLM&feature=related>.]

So, Web 2.0 is just a new version of the buy web. But is it a new dress on the old dot coms that went down in a flame of fire? How long will Web 2.0 last? When will we move to [|Web 3.0]? That phrase has been floating around lately, is the Web starting to evolve again? According to the documentary below, Web 2.0 is a marketing term... funny I thought it was an education term... This video is too long for this evening. "Michael Arrington (founder of [|TechCrunch] ) got together with a number of startup CEOs and executives to video a discussion about Web 2.0. Participating in the discussion were Aaron Cohen (Bolt), Scott Milener and Steven Lurie (Browster), Keith Teare (edgeio), Steven Marder (Eurekster), Joe Kraus (JotSpot), Jeremy Verba (Piczo), Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf), Chris Alden (Rojo), Gautam Godhwani (Simply Hired), Jonathan Abrams (Socializr), David Sifry (Technorati), Matt Sanchez (Video Egg) and Michael Tanne (Wink). The topics discussed included: What is Web 2.0? Are we in a bubble? What are the business models that will work on the web today? What is the role of publishers in a user generated world? How important and how big is the early adopter crowd?" Hope you will check it out on your own... no one talks about [|Web 3.0]! media type="youtube" key="9JPcno2cJgc&hl=en" height="355" width="425" Alspot, and Michael Arrington. "What Is Web 2.0? Short Version documentary." YouTube. 10 Aug. 2006. 20 Mar. 2008 <[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JPcno2cJgc&feature=related>.]

It is the evolving Web that is our next concern. What will [|Web 3.0] look like? If we are not careful it will not be a bright future. You know us librarians, as [|Michael Moore] says, we are the ones leading and plotting the revolution. Well, we need a revolution to save the Internet or [|Web 3.0] will never happen. Did you know that the Internet as we know it is under attack? Did you know that the Internet is in danger of becoming a dinosaur? Did you know that everything we just talked about... Web 2.0, making movies, and videos, and podcasting may go away... and then we won't have to worry about learning about these things because no one will have enough access (read money) to use these now free applications in their classrooms... have you heard about the concept of Net Neutrality? The Internet has leveled the learning playing field. And that scares people in power, and they want that power back. They want to control what you see and do on the Internet. And most of all, they don't want you to be able to post your own content. So, how are they trying to un-level the playing filed? By making the Internet a one-way communications device like radio and television (which never were supposed to end up that way). Who are they? Your Internet Service Providers... the telephone company who is installing [|FIOS] to your door. This is a serious issue... take a look: media type="youtube" key="JP_3WnJ42kw&hl=en" height="355" width="425" Even as I write this, more and more journalists and bloggers are asking the question... "[|Is Web 2.0 an endangered species?]" And again, it comes down to dollars and cents. And once the Web gets lobotomized, [|can the rest of our mobile devices be far behind]?

Articles and Blogs Tagged Web 3.0:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_30_when_web_sites_become_web_services.php http://www.androidtech.com/knowledge-blog/2006/11/web-30-you-aint-seen-nothing-yet.html http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/11/welcome_web_30.php http://sramanamitra.com/2007/02/14/web-30-4c-p-vs/ Here's Jason's take on it: http://www.calacanis.com/2007/10/03/web-3-0-the-official-definition/ [|Jason Calacanis] is the [|CEO of Mahalo.com]... they make a podcast called [|Mahalo Daily] staring [|Veronica Belmont].

[|Web 2.0] Web Apps: This blog post is cited as a complete list of Web Apps: http://virtualkarma.blogspot.com/2006/01/complete-list-of-web-20-applications.html This blog post is cited as "The Top 60 Web 2.0 Applications in Ausgtralia" : http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_top_60_web_applications_in_australia.php

Article from THE Journal January 2008: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21839

**Web 2.0 Sites that we use**
(So, if it is all about the tools, collaboration, and corporate voice...please add to this list share at least one Web 2.0 tool that you use personally or with your class and if you use it with students how it is used)

[|Digg] [|Google Docs] iGoogle: http://www.google.com/ig NetVibes: http://www.netvibes.com/ [|Flickr] [|Twitter] (I will not push the link to go to Twitter... I will not push the link to go to Twitter...) [|Blogger] [|YouTube] [|Slide Share] Wikispaces (Gotta Love the New Wikispaces that automatically put a new page you create on the Navigation bar! Also there is color but so far when I try it, the entire part I want in color disappears.) http://www.go2web20.net/ [|del.icio.us] [|diigo]

The reason I didn't want to create a PowerPoint on Web 2.0:

media type="youtube" key="HLpjrHzgSRM&hl=en" height="355" width="425"

Using PowerPoint for Story Telling: This is very long... and shows how to use PowerPoint well... be careful some of his examples of bad Powerpoint can turn your stomach. media type="youtube" key="OC1OixM_118&hl=en" height="355" width="425"

Courtney, Nancy. Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's User. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. Frauenfelder, Mark. Rule the Web. NY: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007.
 * Additional References:**