The Web 2.0 Concept

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 has been referred to as a: technology (Franklin and Van Harmelen, 2007); second generation of web-based tools and services (Guntram, 2007); and community-driven online platform or an attitude rather than technology (Downes, 2005; Virkus, 2008).

Downes (2005), a Canadian researcher, believes that the emergence of Web 2.0 is a social revolution rather than a technological revolution. Web 2.0 tools and services foster new modes of connectivity, communication, collaboration, sharing of information, content development and social organisation. Bryant (2007) calls this new way of living as the "always on" culture where distinctions between learning,working and entertainment are beginning to blur (Virkus, 2008).

However, the new user-centred paradigm in which users are, at the same time, both producers and consumers of content and services has evolved from previous web developments. The web before the dot.com crash is usually referred to as Web 1.0. O'Reilly (2005) cites a number of examples of how Web 2.0 can be distinguished from Web 1.0, such as Web 1.0 was mainly a platform for information, but Web 2.0 is also a platform for participation (Virkus, 2008).

In a nutshell, what was happening was that the web was shifting from being a medium, in which information was transmitted and consumed, into being a platform, in which content was created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along. And what people were doing with the web was not merely reading books, listening to the radio or watching TV, but having a conversation, with a vocabulary consisting not just of words but of images, video, multimedia and whatever they could get their hands on. And this became, and looked like, and behaved like, a network (Downes, 2005).

Many authors refer to the Britannica Online as a typical example of Web 1.0, and to the Wikipedia as a typical example of Web 2.0. Thus, Web 1.0 is characterised as "read only Web" and Web 2.0 as "read-write Web" which "enables the users to add, share, rate or adjust information" (Drachsler et al., 2007; Virkus, 2008).

Some of the typical features of Web 1.0 are: static and non-interactive web pages; content management systems; portals and taxonomy. Web 2.0 is about blogs, wikis, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and social tagging.

Blogging is one of the most highly favoured features of the Web 2.0. A weblog, or blog, is just an online diary where entries are displayed in reverse chronological order and in addition to text messages, postings can include photos, links, video and audio. Tools, like Blogger and WordPress, make the creation of blogs very easy.

Wiki is a web site creation and authoring tool that allows a group of people collaboratively to edit web site content.

RSS is a format for syndicating content on the web. RSS is based on XML and allows bloggers to send their content to subscribed readers. Instead of checking web sites daily for updates, people can subscribe to the site's RSS feed and get a notification every time new information is posted to the web site. Services based on RSS feeds can be used to update web sites continually with thematically relevant content.

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorising that allows users to associate keywords or "tags" with online content (Downes, 2005; Farkas, 2007; Virkus, 2008).