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Somewhat in the mid-1990s, Internet become quite common (Comer, 2007, p. 19). Back then it was built on static pages with no interactivity what so ever, mostly because of the speed limit. In 2004 Tim O’Reilly discussed the concept of web 2.0, a development of the web 1.0 and/or the world wide web (O’Reilly, 2005). Warr (2008, p. 591-592) interprets O’Reillys (2005) definition of web 2.0 with eight core patterns:

1. Harnessing collective intelligence

There is an enormous mount of information on the web, and now it is easier to find and use it. The number one place to find information on the web is at search engines and social software (like blogging, social bookmarking and collaborating tools) play a big role in how different pages rank.

2. Data as the next “Intel Inside”

There is a lot of different services with different functionality on the web today, and many of them can use each others benefits (like databases or APIs). In example you may use an ISBN registry when building an library service, or use PayPal’s functionality when building an e-business.

3. Innovation in assembly

With web 2.0 it is easier to combine two, or more, different services and mash them into a new one, a mashup. This is an easy and cost effective way to make new services (see the 8th point).

4. Rich user experiences

Webpages can be built in a much more user-friendly way because of new web programming techniques like XHTML, CSS, XML and JavaScript. These techniques has made it possible to create web services as powerful as computer-based programs.

5. Software above the level of a single device

When using a web service, it does not depend on which platform you use. The service is installed on a server, and not on the client, and therefore the user can use Windows, MacOS, Linux or which operating system that suits best.

6. Perpetual beta

A web service does not have the same type of release cycle as a computer-based program where the user needs to pay for every new updated version. Usually, web services does not leave the development phase and therefore the functionality always improves. Also, most of the web services are free of use.

7. Leveraging the long tail

Earlier, 80% of the internet resources could only be used by 20% of the Internet users. By understand and master web 2.0 it is possible to reach out to all users. “The Web 2.0 lesson: leverage customer-self service algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head”.

8. Lightweight software and business models and cost effective scalability

Web 2.0 has opened up for new business models that do not require as advanced techniques and as much resources as earlier. There are already so many services with good functionality that can be used for new services, it is not necessary to develop everything from scratch.

Tepper (2003, p. 22) means that the interactivity and collaboration are the biggest parts of web 2.0. User can now interact much easier with each other, and create collaborative documents on the web. In example, a multiple-author internal blog can serve a number of purposes: a living document of processes, a knowledge container and shorter decision cycles with comments and discussions.

A, probably familiar, big web 2.0 service with collaborative content is the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.

References

Comer, D. E. (2007). The Internet Book (4th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall

O’Reilly, T. (2005). What Is Web 2.0. Fetched 2009-10-24, from http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228

Tepper, M. (2003). The rise of the social software. NetWorker, 7(3), 18-23.

Warr, W. A. (2008). Social software: fun and games, or business tools? Journal of Information Science, 34(4), 591-604.