Web 2.0, What, Why and How?

Introduction:

Hello readers, welcome to my second blog post, in this article i want to go into discussion about what is web 2.0, how can you use it and what benefits can arise from doing so. But before i go into deep detail, firstly i would like to answer a question which may or may not be in your minds...

"..Just what is Web 2.0?"

Web 2.0 is a term coined to describe the massive boom in online social technologies which has arisen in the passed decade, there is no solid definition, but the most widely accepted description is:

a second generation in the development of the World Wide Web, conceived as a combination of concepts,trends, and technologies that focus on user collaboration, sharing of user-generated content, and social networking.

So when you look at various examples of things you use on a daily basis, Facebook, Twitter or any other socially enabled application, you are using something based upon Web 2.0.

In my day to day duties i use several Web 2.0 applications to assist me in production, keeping up to date with the latest trends in politics and watching what my friends have done in the week on Facebook. I find Facebook a great experience and i only recently got into it when i started my University degree - it just makes keeping up to date with group work and assignments so much easier. I also use LinkedIn to keep me up to date on what my coworkers are doing and to keep "online" for career purposes. Another great service i use is called "Mapmyrun", it is a GPS smartphone application which tracks you when you go for a jog or light walk and then shows your status' and routes for which you can share with others, there are even options to have "track records" for certain routes you create.

So here are some examples of what i do on Web 2.0 applications, but there are plenty more out there that people use.

All examples of (but not limited to) various web 2.0 enabled socially enabled sites.

How can Web 2.0 applications benefit the average Joe:

There are many ways in which you can benefit from social media these may not always be fully realized, you may not think so but when you think about it there are so many things you do with your web 2.0 application that if it didn't exist... how would you do this task differently?

Share a photo with a family friend?

Keep in touch with people you went to school with?

Share information in an open Wikipedia of information?

Food for thought.

Types of Web 2.0 Enabled social sites/services:

• Social Networks - Services that allow you to connect with other people of similar interests and background.  Usually they consist of a profile, various ways to interact with other users, ability to setup groups, etc. The most popular are Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Bookmarking Sites - Services that allow you to save, organize and manage links to various websites and resources around the internet.  Most allow you to “tag” your links to make them easy to search and share.  The most popular are Delicious and StumbleUpon.
• Social News - Services that allow people to post various news items or links to outside articles and then allows it’s users to”vote” on the items.  The voting is the core social aspect as the items that get the most votes are displayed the most prominently.  The community decides which news items get seen by more people.  The most popular are Digg and Reddit.
• Media Sharing - Services that allow you to upload and share various media such as pictures and video.  Most services have additional social features such as profiles, commenting, etc.  The most popular are YouTube and Flickr.
• Micro-blogging - Services that focus on short updates that are pushed out to anyone subscribed to receive the updates.  The most popular is Twitter.
• Blog Comments and Forums - Online forums allow members to hold conversations by posting messages.  Blog comments are similar except they are attached to blogs and usually the discussion centers around the topic of the blog post.  There are MANY popular blogs and forums.

Thank you for reading.