“Web 2.0″ refers to the second generation of web development and web design that facilitates information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design[1] and collaboration on the World Wide Web.
Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies.
CHARACTERISTICS
Participation
Every aspect of Web 2.0 is driven by participation. The transition to
Web 2.0 was enabled by the emergence of platforms such as blogging,
social networks, and free image and video uploading, that collectively
allowed extremely easy content creation and sharing by anyone.
Standards
Standards provide an essential platform for Web 2.0. Common
interfaces for accessing content and applications are the
glue that allow integration across the many elements of
the emergent web.
Decentralization
Web 2.0 is decentralized in its architecture,
participation, and usage. Power and flexibility emerges
from distributing applications and content over many
computers and systems, rather than maintaining
them on centralized systems.
Openness
The world of Web 2.0 has only become possible
through a spirit of openness whereby developers
and companies provide open, transparent access
to their applications and content.
Modularity
Web 2.0 is the antithesis of the monolothic. It emerges
from many, many components or modules that are
designed to link and integrate with others, together
building a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
User Control
A primary direction of Web 2.0 is for users to control
the content they create, the data captured about their web
activities, and their identity. This powerful trend is driven by
the clear desires of participants.
Identity
Identity is a critical element of both Web 2.0 and the future direction
of the internet. We can increasingly choose to represent our identities
however we please, across interactions, virtual worlds, and social networks.
We can also own and verify our real identities in transactions if we choose.
