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Web 2.0 has become a popular buzz word among bloggers, designers, and even the mainstream media. While this word is commonly used in conjunction with various software programs, it must be emphasized that Web 2.0 does not refer to any one technology. Instead, Web 2.0 is a broad term that is used to describe emerging Internet tools and a philosophy about how these tools can be used. There are a number of technologies which make up Web 2.0, and they have a large number of potential applications over the web. Web developers would like to use these technologies in a way that will enhance the Internet as a whole.
Some of the technologies which are connected to Web 2.0 include blogs, social book-marking, AJAX, and RSS. The philosophy deals with the idea that the consumers who use media and connect to the Internet must use it in a way that allows them to absorb the information that is available. However, in addition to absorbing the information, the consumer should also play a role in the creation and distribution of that information. With Web 2.0, a higher importance is placed on the ability of the user to customize and contribute information in a way that is useful to them and their community.
Proponents of Web 2.0 claim that there is a distinct difference between it and Web 1.0, the Internet that largely exists today. In the past, the information on the Internet was widely distributed by large corporations. This was especially true during the mid to late 1990s, when the costs of building a website were outside the hands of the general public. The only people or companies who could afford to build websites were the entities who were responsible for the distribution of information. However, the decreasing cost of site design in recent year has eroded this power.
In the early days of the Internet, most web pages were static. Because they were updated by a handful of people, they were not updated as often as they should have been. To add information to these pages, more often than not, you had to be a programmer who was skilled in HTML. While the Internet was a powerful tool, it clearly lacked something, and this was the contribution of the user, or the consumer. It is for this reason that Web 2.0 has been called "the next big thing". It does what Web 1.0 doesn't do, that is, it allows the average consumer to contribute to the distribution of information.
If you're a nonprofit organization, it may not be wise for you to jump on the Web 2.0 bandwagon if you haven't even mastered Web 1.0. At this point, Web 2.0 is the domain of techies. It has not yet entered the domain of the general public, and it may be another five years before the term is fully realized. However, many of its supporters feel that it will help the Internet evolve into an entirely different system. It promises to be more efficient, and once it is fully realized, it can help both profit and nonprofit organizations achieve their aims.
When most established companies hear of Web 2.0, they are concerned that it will reduce their ability to profit on the web. This is far from the truth. In actuality, Web 2.0 can make a company more profitable. Instead of the company spending large sums of money trying to market its product and services, if the company has good products, and they offer good service, this information could be spread by word of mouth via the consumer. It could be done via blogs or social bookmarks, and it can allow the company to become even more successful.
It is easy to see why many mainstream news companies would be afraid of Web 2.0. The reason for this is simple: Web 2.0 sets the stage where the people, rather than a few corporations, are able to spread news and communicate with each other. If anything, it could be said that Web 2.0 is much more democratic than the current media system, in which a few select corporations are responsible for sharing information with the public, information that could be biased in favor of their own views. While consumers may be biased with their views on Web 2.0, it will be much smaller in scale, and their information can be countered with that of others.
