What is Web 2.0?
By JennSierra
I'm currently in the final stages of my Ph.D. program (Instructional Design for Online Learning), and the topic I've chosen for my dissertation is "The Learner Profile for an Online Social Networker." My particular area of interest for research is the role of Web 2.0 in online education and training.
When I explain this to friends and acquaintances, the question inevitably arises, "So, what, exactly, is Web 2.0, anyway?" Good question. The best person to answer this question is Tim O'Reilly, the person who coined the term. For his explanation, see What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.
Web 2.0 affects our lives online in the form of blogs, online citizen journalism sites (social news), wiki's, folksonomies, social networking sites, collaborative bookmarking sites, podcasts, aggregators (e.g., RSS), semantic web, collaborative software, and other online scenarios in which users create and share content such as graphics, news, information, technology, creative writing, software, photos, and videos. The original World Wide Web gave us the opportunity to share information by posting what we had to say, and by reading what others had to say. Web 2.0 takes that concept to the next level, by giving us the opportunity to collectively influence what information is available and how the information is distributed to ourselves and others.
Because of Web 2.0 technology, there is a growing body of knowledge online that is taking on a life of its own, and it is very influential. If we are interested in the accuracy of the information that is being distributed online, we need to have a voice in this increasingly important global discussion. We need to understand and utilize Web 2.0 if we want this body of knowledge to at least partially reflect our values, attitudes, respect for history, and vision for the future.
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Jenn Sierra (author)
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3 comments:
which of these do you think has a shot?
http://www.congoo.com
http://www.joost.com
http://www.stubleupon.com
http://www.twitter.com
Which one has the most value for you?
Hi, Richard. Good question. IMHO, Congoo is too much like Google News or Yahoo…I prefer Google News for a pure News aggregator. Joost is really cool, but I’m personally not much of a TV watcher. If I were, I think I would love Joost. Stumbleupon definitely has the right idea, but I don’t like the fact that I’m required to download their toolbar to use it, (this invites spyware issues), and the stories I’ve located using their searches have been a little outdated. Twitter, if I understand it correctly, is great for keeping up with your friends and heroes, but I don’t like to be that easy to find! ;-)
So, what do I use? The best citizen journalism (social news) site right now is still Digg, especially in technology, in spite of their recent issues in the world news and politics sections. The MySpace News Beta also looks promising. To keep in touch with friends online, I use Yahoo and Google, and I’m very impressed with Google’s new photo-sharing and docs/software-sharing features, and Google's Blogger. Another less well-known search engine that I like is OMGILI, which finds current online discussions about any topic.
Jenn Sierra,
Thanks very much for your article.
I've signed on to MySpace News Beta, but I don't really understand what it's all about and how to use it. This may be because I'm not very familiar with MySpace.
When you have time, I'd like it if you'd write another article telling newbies a little more about MySpace News Beta: how it relates to the existing MySpace, how the News Beta feature works, how articles and news sources are promoted, what a new user needs to do to gain an effective presence in MySpace News Beta.
In future articles, I'm also interested in hearing more about OMGILI, and abou how you are using Google's photo-sharing and document-sharing features.
Thanks again,
1389
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