Here’s a thought that might help you understand the paradigm shift from the old internet to Web 2.0:
Let’s break this down:
The old internet was made up of sites that put information on that they thought was relevant without readers’ input. This also meant that they could exclude any information which was contrary to their efforts. Hence you have the scenario where websites are dictating to you, much like the way Hitler used wave his finger when addressing a crowd. Web 2.0 sites, on the other hand, leave it to the users of the site to create the content, so in fact the content is by the people for the people and there is no control over the direction the content will follow, it seems to ebb and flow with the voice of the community. The people also determine what is popular and what isn’t by different forms of what is basically voting, although this simple concept takes on a few different names in the Web 2.0 space (depending on what voting service is used) such as: Rating, Digging, Stumbling, bookmarking, tagging and yes even voting sometimes.
Youtube is a Web 2.0 site and is a great example of content created by the people for the people. But you may be thinking: ‘Well all I do is watch videos on Youtube so how is that Web 2.0?’ The answer is simple really, if you sign up (for free of course) with Youtube, you will see a whole lot more functionality which is the true power of the service. So firstly videos are uploaded by regular people like you and me (we call them users) which is very Web 2.0. You can also rate a video which will contribute to its popularity and is nice and democratic, you can email a video to a friend, post it on Facebook or even put it on (embed is the technical term) your blog or website all of which falls under the social networking side of Web 2.0. Make sense? I hope so!
Coming up in Part 3.3, we’ll either be discussing blogs or podcasts depending on my mood at the time of writing it.
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