Yep my ears are burning from all the people exclaiming I’m nuts – but the truth is the Web 2.0 definition is not a technology or a platform (new or otherwise).
There’s a lot of talk about how Web 2.0 as a new technology. Hogwash. It’s not. Oh yea, the Web hasn’t changed platforms either.
OK, Now that I have just discounted all the erroneous speculation about web 2.0, I’m going to explain what I believe and think, and why what’s said is not correct. (No offense guys)
The World Wide Web (www) has always been a network of computers. The way it was set up hasn’t changed much since the ARPNET days. As it was then, so it is now, the Internet is a network of computers. This hasn’t changed, there’s no new paradigm of how the Internet works.
The creation of TCP/IP, the creation and advances in html, the creation of a browser, the ability to send information over network lines, all of this is old stuff.
The Web is still based on all of these foundations. The technology used to perform tasks has changed but when people say Web 2.0 is a new web platform – or new Internet platform – sorry, it’s just not true. It’s not even a platform.
Many of the platforms and technologies existed long before 2.0 were ever coined. Surprised? Don’t be. So what exactly is web 2.0? What is the best web 2.0 definition?
Good question, and now the answer. It’s a process. That’s it – that’s the answer. It’s a process that uses the technologies and platforms of the past in a new and exciting way.
Yet people keep saying it’s new. Take blogging; its a web 2.0 technology or platform that was actually developed in 1994. It’s an old technology that has grown into and now is part of the communication network called Web 2.0.
The term web 2.0 wasn’t even created until a media firm used it in 2004.
Now the term is all the rage.
OK my point… It’s a process.
Pre web 2.0 the way people got information, connected and communicated was through static web pages, forums and email. The web was static.
That was Web 1.0 (which is another recent term but it works so I’m using it) Web 2.0 enters. And things change.
But it’s not technologies or platforms or the World Wide Web that changed. It’s how information, and those looking for it, communicate and interact that has changed.
Communication is a process.
So for me, a web 2.0 definition encompasses existing technologies and used them in ways that weren’t used before. It’s changed the way (the process) in which people communicate.
Web 2.0 is a communication process. It is interaction. It is fast interactions that move in both directions. The communication now moves from me to you, you to me, and both of us out to the world. How we do this – through blogging, video, instant messages, podcasts, vlogs, tweets and more, is what a web 2.0 definition must encompasses. These are the processes we use to interact.
To me, a good Web 2.0 definition is the instantaneous and dual direction of communication, which the world uses to interact. If you would like more information on the social process and how you might benefit from them to change your life join my newsletter.