What is Web 2.0

In a not so recent article on ZD Net Wainewright writes "Microsoft's business model depends on everyone upgrading their computing environment every two to three years. Google's depends on everyone exploring what's new in their computing environment every day." This sums up what web 2.0 is all about for me but this article is seven years old now and no Microsoft has not beaten Google, in fact Google is very much a front runner with it vast range of web 2.0 applications.

So what exactly is web 2.0?

According to O'Rielly (2005) the principal features of Web 2.0 companies can be summarised as:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

Lets just use a web 2.0 app to help explain that

Web 2.0 is simply the parts of the web that are interactive with its users instead of the parts of the web that simply allow users to read a published page. Web 2.0 allows users to interactive, edit, and even create their own content. For example, YouTube is part of Web 2.0.

This video gives a quick overview. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsa5ZTRJQ5w

What is it for me?

I think an hour or so of web activity whilst studying H800 will paint a picture as far as I am concerned within this period I have used  a range of Web 2.0 apps:

• I start at iGoogle which is where I store all my links under different tabs, work' study. research.
• This links me into the OU site and a whole world of learning opens up.
• My course material opens in a Moodle Learning management system (LMS) 'Open source and free'
• I use the social learning tools to communicate with my fellow students within a Forum.
• I find a useful site for discussion or further reading and Tag it to my Delicious, bookmarking site so I will be able to find it again under certain categories..
• I check my Google Reader account for latest blog postings and research material or just some general reading. This saves me trawling lots of forums and blogs, instead they come to me.
• I quickly check to see if any fellow students have added to our collaborative presentation on Google Docs.
• Perform my research and finally complete this blog to store an account of my personal learning and reflection for future reference and sharing with my fellow learners.
• I make a note of an important date by adding it to my online calendar which synchronises with my phone I never miss an appointment.

Where do I do this? Anywhere in the world, I am not tied to any computer to perform any of these tasks I could have been sat watching Argyle win whilst performing all of this (albeit a bit slower) from my blackberry or better still from some exotic location in a cybercafe.


Not convinced yet, well you better get on board because you are missing out and this is just the start.


Need more information, well rather than re-invent the wheel just take a look at how Dr Helen Barrett's 
'Web 2.0 Tools for Lifelong & Life Wide Learning', she breaks it down in a few tools that fit nicely into education, but explore yourself the list is endless although three years old this should still wet the appetite.

References
Barrett, H.(2008) 'Web 2.0 Tools for Lifelong & Life Wide Learning' (online) Available from: http://electronicportfolios.org/web2/class/ (Accessed 12 Mar 2011)


O’Reilly, T. (2005) What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software [online],http://routes.open.ac.uk/ ixbin/ hixclient.exe?_IXDB_=routes&_IXSPFX_=g&submit-button=summary&%24+with+res_id+is+res18497 (last accessed 10 March 2011).


Wainewright, P. (2005) ZDnet 'Why Microsoft can't beat Google' (Online) Available from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/saas/why-microsoft-cant-best-google/13 (Accessed 12 Mar 2011)