Web 2.0 | Solutional Webdesign Antwerpen

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Web 2.0 is a term that was first introduced by Darcy DiNucci in 1999 and later made popular by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty in 2004. It symbolizes a significant shift in the online environment from static websites to interactive platforms. The key characteristic of Web 2.0 is its emphasis on user-generated content^[1], ease of use, and a culture of participation. It fosters collaboration and interaction among users, and supports interoperability^[2] with other products. Examples of Web 2.0 include social media^[4] platforms, blogs, wikis, and video sharing sites. This new web generation, however, has been challenged by some, like Tim Berners-Lee, for its distinction from previous web technologies. Nonetheless, Web 2.0 remains a pivotal milestone in the evolution of the World Wide Web^[3].

Terms definitions

1. ↑ User-generated content ( user-generated content ) User-generated content, often shortened to UGC, refers to any form of content such as photos, videos, text, testimonials, and audio that are posted by users on various platforms, including social media and wikis. It's a broad term that encompasses a range of uses, from problem-solving and news reporting to entertainment and advertising. Notably, major news outlets like BBC and CNN, as well as businesses of all sizes use UGC for their respective purposes. The key characteristics of UGC are user contribution, creativity, and online accessibility. While it's a powerful tool, it also raises challenges such as defining the minimum creative effort and managing potential negative outcomes. UGC plays a crucial role in media pluralism, challenging traditional media hierarchies and diversifying content sources.

2. ↑ interoperability. Interoperability, in the realm of technology and systems, is the capability of different systems or products to work together and exchange information seamlessly. It comprises various types such as syntactic interoperability, which ensures common data formats and protocols, and semantic interoperability, allowing meaningful data interpretation. Cross-domain interoperability facilitates data exchange across multiple entities. Interoperability standards aid in the creation of products that can cooperate effortlessly. Post facto interoperability is significant in competitive landscapes where dominant products set market standards. Challenges include data encumbrance and lack of open standards, but solutions lie in improving infrastructure interoperability and promoting open standards. Industry-specific interoperability, like in NATO forces or eGovernment services, is crucial for effective collaboration and efficient service delivery.

Web 2.0 (Wikipedia)

Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and devices) for end users.

The term was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999 and later popularized by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty at the first Web 2.0 Conference in 2004. Although the term mimics the numbering of software versions, it does not denote a formal change in the nature of the World Wide Web, but merely describes a general change that occurred during this period as interactive websites proliferated and came to overshadow the older, more static websites of the original Web.

A Web 2.0 website allows users to interact and collaborate with each other through social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community. This contrasts the first generation of Web 1.0-era websites where people were limited to viewing content in a passive manner. Examples of Web 2.0 features include social networking sites or social media sites (e.g., Facebook), blogs, wikis, folksonomies ("tagging" keywords on websites and links), video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), image sharing sites (e.g., Flickr), hosted services, Web applications ("apps"), collaborative consumption platforms, and mashup applications.

Whether Web 2.0 is substantially different from prior Web technologies has been challenged by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, who describes the term as jargon. His original vision of the Web was "a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write". On the other hand, the term Semantic Web (sometimes referred to as Web 3.0) was coined by Berners-Lee to refer to a web of content where the meaning can be processed by machines.

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