What is ….Web two-point-oh (Web2.0)?

You’ve been seeing the term “Web 2.0″ a lot on your travels along the information highway. Do you know what that means? What was Web 1.0? I wondered, too. When I went to find out, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was already up and running on Web 2.0… and so are YOU!

In computer talk, the first version of a computer program or website is called “version 1.0.” This is the first time the program is operating and doing what it is supposed to do. Quite often, when a program is in actually in use people find that it has problems and the programmer has to tweak it a bit. The tweaked version would be version 1.1, 1.2 and so on. When the programmer decides there is a better way for his program to work, he will re-write the program, including all the tweaks he has made into a completely new version. This would be version “2.o.”

How does this apply? Well, let’s think of the internet as you first heard about it… there were websites to visit. Maybe a guestbook or message board to sign or a chatroom to join. And that’s it. As a browser on the internet, you had to use the sites on the web as you found them. You read, you comment and maybe… you can tell a little bit about yourself in the bargain. This worked great! Little “cyber communities” would spring up and the host site would change the site on occasion to keep everyone’s interest. But you couldn’t change the website yourself. You couldn’t affect the content except informally in the community areas. This is the old web… the first popular version.

Somewhere along the line, someone figured out that everyone had something to contribute or share, but not everyone knew how to make webpages to share their information. If there were only a way where people could share content without having to worry about how to format it. Enter Web 2.0! The new version of the internet!

A Web2.0 site or program provides the basic structure (the formatting) and all the end user has to is provide the content! And other users can comment on the content, organize it, add their own content, their opinion of the content and create their own similar content. End users are no long passive viewers of virtual billboards on the information, they are creators of billboards!

Services like flickr and photobucket are great examples of Web2.0… YOU, the end user, put up your content without knowing a thing about making webpages and allow others to view, comment and otherwise interact with you about the content. If you make a list of “contacts” or “friends” on the site that you regularly interact with, this is called Social Networking. There are whole sites built around the concept of social networking/online interaction (myspace.com and facebook.com are examples of this).

Have you been enjoying Web2.0? Well, yes you are! If you read and comment on WitchyTech, you are participating in a blog, which was one of the first popular manifestations of web2.0. With this blog, I am not only an “end-user” of the web, reading and responding to what’s already there.. I’m an active participant in creating internet content! And by commenting on this site or submitting articles of your own, so are you! Welcome to web 2.0.

For further information and discussion, check out the Wikipedia article Web2.0 (Wikipedia itself being a user-created compilation of knowledge! Very web 2.0!).

Or check out the marvelous film below, showing the progression from written text to Web 2.0, and what thought-provoking concepts might be inspired by this new way to interact with our fellow humans:

The Machine is Us: