home

=**Web 2.0 - A Definition**=
 * "**Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second [|generation] of web-based communities and [|hosted services] — such as [|social-networking sites], [|wikis] and [|folksonomies] — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.... In alluding to the [|version]-numbers that commonly designate software upgrades, the phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web."

Katie's TeacherTube Video on Web 2.0 [|Web 2.0]

YouTube Video on Web 2.0 [|Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us]

A list of different Web 2.0 Examples [|Web 2.0 Examples]

**Tim O'Reilly's Vision of Web 2.0**
"Tim O'Reilly was born in [|Cork], [|Ireland]. He is the founder of [|O'Reilly Media] (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) and a supporter of the [|free software] and [|open source] movements. He is widely credited with coining the term [|Web 2.0]."

O'Reilly was the keynote speaker at the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004. He first listed what he considered key principles of Web 2.0 applications:
 * The web as a [|platform]
 * Data as the driving force
 * [|Network effects] created by an architecture of participation
 * Innovation in assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development)
 * Lightweight [|business models] enabled by content and service syndication
 * The end of the software-adoption cycle (the so-called [|perpetual beta])
 * Software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of the [|"Long Tail"]
 * Ease of picking-up by early adopters

At the 2004 conference O'Reilly also introduced a "taxonomy" of what he considered varying levels of "Web 2.0-ness". Following is a brief explanation of his hierarchy:
 * **Level 3**- applications that are the most "Web 2.0"-oriented, which could only exist on the Internet, deriving their power from the human connections and network effects that Web 2.0 makes possible, and growing in effectiveness the more people use them
 * Examples: eBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, dodgeball and Adsense
 * **Level 2**- applications that can operate offline but which gain advantages from going online
 * Examples: [|Flickr] (which benefits from its shared photo-database and from its community-generated tag database)
 * **Level 1**- applications that are also available offline but which gain features online
 * Examples: Writely (now part of [|Google Docs & Spreadsheets]) and iTunes (because of its music-store portion)
 * **Level 0**- applications which would work as well offline as they do online
 * Examples: MapQuest, Yahoo! Local and Google Maps (Note: Mapping-applications using contributions from users to advantage can rank as "level 2")

"O'Reilly considers that [|Eric Schmidt]'s abridged slogan, //don't fight the Internet//, encompasses the essence of Web 2.0 — building applications and [|services] around the unique features of the [|Internet], as opposed to building applications and expecting the Internet to suit as a platform (effectively "fighting the Internet")."

*References
Information on this page was adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0