Web 2.0: the Future of Collaboration on the Internet
One of the Net's buzzwords of the last year or so is Web 2.0.
This sounds like some sort of high-end Web browser or some illicit software program you can buy from a spammer.
In reality, it's a shorthand way of talking about the immediate future of the Internet, and the specific ways the Web has been changing recently.
Tim O'Reilly, the respected Net publisher, traces the beginnings of Web 2.0 back to when the dot-com bubble burst in fall 2001, which marked a turning point for the Web. Rather than crashing and burning along with the dot-coms, it emerged as more important than ever, says O'Reilly and others.
Today it is difficult to disagree. Then as now most people think of the Internet and the Web as one in the same, which is not true. Web browsers are one example of a software application that uses the Internet, but the confusion over the relationship suggests the dominance of Web browsing.
The confusion is likely to become even more pronounced, as many Web 2.0 capabilities move outside of the Web browser and use dedicated software of its own, which tech types call clients.
So what is Web 2.0? Think of it as a series of interactive and collaborative elements that involve the input or response of others. It also uses the Internet, rather than simply a desktop computer. Computers and Net access link the collaborators together, but they work they do is usually stored on the Net, not on a single hard drive.
So if personal Web pages were something Net users had a decade ago, today they are likely to have blogs where readers can check in and see what the blogger has written, no matter where the writer or reader are located, and post comments on what the blogger has written. Most importantly, the blog is stored on a central computer, not on the creator's personal computer.
Netizen explores the meaning of Web 2.0 with Tim Foley, who directs Lehigh University's client services and library service. Later this year, Foley is organizing a computer professionals' conference in Savannah, Ga., where the subject of Web 2.0 will be the keynote address.
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TIM FOLEY, DIRECTOR OF LEHIGH UNIVERSITY'S CLIENT SERVICES
Q: What does the term Web. 2.0 mean to you?
A: I don't think you can quantify it in a definite way. It is one of the things that is happening with the Web and beyond the Web. Second Life (www.secondlife.com) is a good example. You create this avatar and you create a whole world, a whole economy around it. There are a lot of things that Google is doing with programs like Writely. It looks just like a (Microsoft) Word document but it's collaborative. Different people in different parts of the country can work on the document at the same time. Google is making a big push for running these types of collaborative software through the Web. Collaboration is a key to Web 2.0. What's surprising to me is the companies have found a way to make this profitable.
Q: Are there things that are definitely not Web 2.0?
A: The problem with Web 2.0 is that it is so all-encompassing. When the Web first came out, there are all these things happening that people weren't expecting. At first, people were posting static Web pages. They aren't as interactive as they are now.
Interactive is a characteristic of Web 2.0, as is the social networking aspects of the pages like MySpace and Facebook, which are really big things on campus. But I think Web 2.0 includes all sorts of interactive capabilities.
We're doing something on our campus (Internet) portal using Google maps. We've created this car- pool channel, a ride board, where (Lehigh students and staff) can click on a Google map and find people who live near them. You can even click down and see their house.
Q: When did you first start hearing the term Web 2.0?
A: I think about a year, a year and a half ago. There was this great article in Educause (a professional computer organization with a focus on Internet technology uses in educational settings) by Bryan Alexander.
I just thought they were trying to categorize a lot of things that were happening with the Web that were evolutionary kinds of things. But there are people who are saying that we really shouldn't use the term Web 2.0 because it really isn't about the World Wide Web but it is more about things like ''Second Life,'' which uses the Internet but really doesn't use the Web.
To use Second Life, you have to download a client (a dedicated piece of software) to get the high-end, three-dimensional stuff. To get the most out of Second Life, you also really need a high-end graphics card. So I don't know if Web 2.0 is a good term. It's really about the expansion of the Internet and all that it has brought about, especially the growth in broadband capacity. Before (broadband) you really couldn't do a lot of things.
We've become an iTunes university, so professors can post videos and podcasts on iTunes that students can download. It's something that Apple is offering and we're taking advantage of it. It doesn't cost the university anything. We really just started to do that. One faculty member has already posted some course material on iTunes.
We're also trying to get some of our university relations information on iTunes. Let's say a professor is really up on a topic and we post a 20- or 30-second sound clip of him speaking on iTunes. It might not be the only way we can do it. We could also have the same sound clip as a piece of streaming audio, so we could have essentially the same information available several ways.
Q: Do you think Web 2.0 is an issue computer professionals think about but that your average Internet user doesn't care about? Will Web 2.0 become meaningless to regular users?
A: I think it already has. Take something like Flickr, where you post photo albums that everyone else can see. People aren't really thinking about whether this is Web 2.0 or Web 1.0. People are going to say 'This is great,' or 'This works.'
Skype (the free Internet video phone service. http://www.skype.com); is another example. You download the client and get to talk to people full-screen. I can talk to my grandkids and they can actually see me. It's almost better than being there.
I see all of these things as Web 2.0. Everything seems to be moving toward more collaboration. From a client (user) perspective, they want it all to be seamless. We have an (Internet) portal here that we all use. You log into it. Maybe in the future, you won't have to (log in). It will know who you are and what you want to do. We're not anywhere near this yet.
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