Web 2.0 Description…

This article describes Web 2.0  as “popular term for advanced Internet technology and applications including blogs, wikis, RSS and social bookmarking.”  It discusses Tim O’Reilly as the individual credited with inventing the term but also mentions a dispute in regards to that adding that “Joe Firmage, for instance, used Web 2.0 to describe using the World Wide Web as a platform in 2003.”

As in many articles I have read while researching this Web 2.0 assignment, it discusses the difference between Web 1.0 (world wide web) and Web 2.0 in that Web 2.0 “users have more input into the nature and scope of Web content and in some cases exert real-time control over it.”  As where in the original version of the web, “data was posted on Web sites, and users simply viewed or downloaded the content.”

I do somewhat agree with the criticism of Web 2.0 discussed in the article that Web 2.0 “makes it too easy for the average person to affect online content and that, as a result, the credibility, ethics and even legality of Web content could suffer.”  I have run into this problem many times with sites like Wikipedia, and I know even in some college courses I’ve taken that you are banned from using Wikipedia at all for research and information.  And, of course, that is mainly because anyone can post data or information to this site whether it be accurate or not.  Nowadays in Wikipedia, I have noticed there are disclaimers they’ve added to certain pages stating that the information provided has not been verified and may not be accurate.  So how are you supposed to get accurate information nowadays?  Basically, you have to pay for it in some sort of subscription to a site providing what you want or need.

Of course, there are pro and cons to every subject or issue.  In the article, it also describes that defenders of Web 2.0 state “these problems have existed ever since the infancy of the medium and that the alternative — widespread censorship based on ill-defined elitism — would be far worse.”  And I believe that to be true as well.  It’s not like there is some huge government agency policing every single website on the internet verifying the accuracy of information provided to the public.  Basically, you just have to trust what you’re reading is true unless it has been disproved otherwise.

Blogs, RSS, and social bookmarking related to Web 2.0 is definitely the future of the internet, and where it seems the internet will stay for a very long time to come.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1169528,00.html

What Is Web 2.0 Anyway?

I do agree that web users should be actively involved in contributing information to what’s out there on the internet instead of just “passively absorbing” the data.  I did learn something new in that blogs is a shortened version of “web logs”.  This story related particularly to non-profit organizations.  I think Web 2.0 is and will always be very useful to organizations of this type.  For example, they’re able to easily keep members and volunteers updated on the latest happenings and events with blogs.  Whereas in the past, they had to send out mass emails or even brochures or pamphlets to keep everyone updated.  Nowadays, they can create a blog and have someone regularly monitor it to ensure questions or issues get answered and also to spread the word on any fundraising events they’re trying to schedule.

In regards to tagging, the non-profit technology community created its own tagging project (NPTech tag) on “del.icio.us to share knowledge among people in the field.”  Tagging is useful in that you can “tag” any information you find or post on the internet with simple keywords that will help other users identify and find what they are looking for when performing an internet search for something related to a certain non-profit organization or cause.

This article also discussed AJAX (an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) which “is a term that refers to JavaScript, XML, HTML, andCSS used in conjunction to develop interactive Web applications.”  I really like the concept and idea of this.  It discusses in traditional web applications, when you try to pull up a website by clicking on a link, there is that usual lag time of waiting while the page loads since it is requesting information from a particular web server.  In an AJAX-driven web application, the results are immediate.  So there is no waiting time for the page to load.  The article does state that they are only “on the tip of the iceberg” in regards to AJAX, but the concept is very cool indeed.  We all know how annoying it is to wait for pages to load, and this could be  a very useful tool for non-profits because it could make a different between someone who was going to give a donation giving up because they were too impatient to wait for their site to load.

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/archives/page9344.cfm