Web 2.0 For The Laymen

One of the most common buzzwords I hear misused is “Web 2.0”. It seems like everyone in the industry these days throws that word out as little more than a selling point, often with no understanding of what it actually means. I thought I would start off the Magic Logix blog right and explain this new approach to the web in Laymen terms as well as offer some insights into relevant technologies. Hopefully some people out there might get a better understanding of what web 2.0 is and more importantly how they can use it to their benefit.

The one thing you need to understand is that Web 2.0 is an idea. It’s not a specific technology, script or platform as much as a way of approaching the web. The term began originally with a conference between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Legendary web jedi Dale Dougherty and tech guru Tim O'Reilly basically founded the concept after the dot-com bubble burst in the fall of 2001. They used the term to describe newly emerging web applications and architecture in the post dot-com collapse. In an article published September 2005 entitled “What Is Web 2.0 - Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software” O'Reilly outlines the new terminology very concisely by contrasting older web based business models with newer ones that utilize this paradigm through enhanced architecture, community interaction and various web based applications.

For those who don’t understand the tech lingo I will try my best to put it in simple terms. Basically the web sucked up until the late 90’s. It was one big mess of hyperlinks and inefficient scripts. Obtaining cutting edge programming that enabled visitors to interact with a website (registering as a user for example) were expensive and too complicated for novice users and new web start ups to employ. The larger companies that could afford to develop these types of scripts prospered and the ones that didn’t, didn’t. All of this came to a head (supposedly) the fall of 2001 and bam! Web 2.0! Well, actually it’s a lot more complicated than that, but you get the picture.

The comment features on this blog, social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, technorati, the superstar tags you see on Jobster.com or the dynamic user features you enjoy on Flickr.com are all shining examples of a Web 2.0 approach to the internet. Whether it is a more efficient way of sharing content or just an enhanced user experience, the general premise and democratic ideals stay the same.

The prospect of trying to hand code a company website for someone who has trouble logging into their e-mail correctly is slim at best. With Web 2.0 that is no longer the case. The explosion of open source CMS projects like Joomla! and Mambo allow people to cut out the expensive web maintenance that kept most business owners out of the game. Portals like Myspace.com have made coders out of everyone from disaffected hipsters to aging soccer moms the world over, so the transition isn’t hard to see in the near future.

The funniest thing to me is that the web actually really started to take off just as it was reported to fall apart. Some have argued the whole thing is little more than an over-hyped marketing ploy. Whatever the case, with recent statistics indicating that 17.2 % of the world’s population is now online, a strong web presence may be crucial for future business models.