Reasonable people disagree about what Web 2.0 means. Let's clear that up. Web 2.0 refers to the propensity of recent Internet applications to be more collaborative and provide for a richer user experience. Web 1.0 was a Web site that looked like a brochure or a resume. Web 2.0 is a blog. Web 1.0 was your newspaper's classified ads, webified. Web 2.0 is eBay or craigslist. Web 1.0 was Netscape (i.e., here's some software). Web 2.0 is Google (there's nothing to install, but it's powerful).
Web 2.0 is about harnessing collective intelligence and eliminating the software release cycle. It's about providing services, not products. Much of the agile software development mindset is rolled up into the phrase. It's about trusting users as co-developers of content or even of technology. As an example, Amazon does this with its user review system.
Those Cynical Europeans (They're Probably Right)
A more cynical definition of Web 2.0, found in the blogosphere in Europe (where they tend to be more conservative about technology) is "Bubble 2.0." What they mean by this is that some marketers have gone off the deep end applying this term to anything. And they're right. Europeans are always right (just ask them).
Bubble 1.0 burst in March of 2000 when the NASDAQ reached 5,000 points (it's 2,200 today). Some software as a service (SaaS)-oriented companies such as Salesforce, Journyx and Google, emerged successfully from that bubble, and some did not. Bubble 2.0 will probably be smaller but will have some winners and losers, too. YouTube - a video blogging site - is an obvious recent big winner, with a billion-dollar-plus buyout by Google. This happened just as venture capitalists were starting to sour on the Web 2.0 concept. http://del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that has taken off. Clipmarks is similar.
Web 2.0 includes a social dimension, greater openness and transparency in process. It includes the use of new technologies, such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) and eXtensible Markup Language (XML). It has a more open style and a "keep it simple" approach. Many of these attributes go hand in hand. For example, open source technologies tend to be simple, transparent and lightweight. It's more of an attitude than a specific architectural protocol. Web 2.0 has:
- New technologies for data and content integration, like XML, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), WSDL and RSS.
- Collaboration and content repurposing, like Sourceforge.net or Youtube.com.
- Different business models with longer tails, such as Google Adwords as opposed to DoubleClick.
Wikipedia is the canonical example of a Web 2.0 application. A mashup is a Web application that combines content from more than one source. Trakzor is a Myspace mashup that combines Google maps with Myspace visitor data to produce detailed information about visitors to your Myspace page (if you're young enough to have one). "On demand" offerings from companies such as Journyx and Salesforce.com fit into the new paradigm, as well. Salesforce's AppExchange site is probably the best example of a business-centric Web 2.0 system currently available. It is designed to some degree to encourage mashups to happen - although the enormous sign-up fees are very un-Web 2.0-ish. With Web 2.0, groups of users within companies control their own destinies by shared administration responsibilities more than was the case in previous software models.
New Technologies for Integration
Web-oriented architectures based on XML, SOAP and WSDL make mashups possible. Rememberthemilk.com is a Web site that combines Google mapping technology with your personal task list, allowing you to see on the map where your tasks are located in the real world. You can see what's nearby or on your way, and plan the best way to get things done. IBM's answer to XML is Representational State Transfer (REST), which exposes elements of an application via the SaaS model. Journyx Timesheet's WSDL API enables similar mashups to occur with its SaaS site. Salesforce.com's AppExchange push is based on the mashup concept and heavily dependent on XML as the application programming interface (API) mechanism. IBM is another vendor that is shifting its innovation strategies toward enabling a broader web environment as opposed to just adding new features to existing applications such as IBM's Lotus Notes middleware tool. To this end, they're working on technologies like dogear and Feedme (an RSS-based improvement to the old IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console product). Technologies that allow a richer user experience in the browser as is displayed in Google Mail and Maps are also considered to be part of the Web 2.0 movement. IBM's service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiative takes this to a new level - but that's another article.
Communities
Youtube (video sharing), Digg (IT news voting) and Wikipedia (way better than britannica.com) exemplify the community aspect of Web 2.0 thinking. The content comes from users, not authorities, and it's amazingly high quality.
One of the greatest communities on the Internet is Sourceforge.net where Python, Perl, Apache, PostgreSQL and thousands of other great technologies were developed. The company that owns this site, Va Software, realized that the collaborative project-oriented atmosphere created on Sourceforge.net would also be useful for large IT shops like those at FedEx if they added some security features and issue tracking. Sourceforge Enterprise was born, which allows companies to securely pull external software developers into their development process - whether they're from partners, customers or the public at large. For an example of how Web 2.0 is impacting governments, compare sites like DavisWiki.org to a traditional city Web site.
