Ruminating Web 2.0 Concept

We’ve heard the term being thrown around casually, we may even have used it once or twice in web related dialogue, but, to me, the term web 2.0 has remained much of a mystery. Okay, we knew it was it a modern concept however vague this definition may be. But after a little investigation, I now have a clearer sense of what the tern Web 2.0 really means.

The term invented by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty who used it to describe a set of successful characteristics that many businesses seemed to share. From these practices grew an architecture of interactive participation in the form of a service, versus a product. Clients, customers and users became encouraged to contribute to a collective intelligence, and thus was conceived the notion of open source. As this progressed, the internet has transformed from a document delivery system into a much healthier web economy that focuses more on customer self-services and rich interface designs. As online experiences be come more enjoyable and interactive for the user, we can notice more and more people turning to the web who may not have been so inclined previously, like for example senior citizens and elementary school children.

From a developers perspective, more content is created using applications which allow for user interactivity, like Drupal, and XML. Additionally popular is the creation of Open Source data through API’s and web services like RSS, and Ajax and conforming to proper Web Standards (DOM Scripting, XHTML, CSS).

In keeping with appropriate standards, I will conclude this post by adding a graphical representation of the many characteristics and concepts that have created what we know as Web 2.0.

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