Welcome to the Web 2.0 blog!
Welcome to my blog on Web 2.0 where I provide updates on what's happening in the Web 2.0 space, focusing particularly on this region. Each week, I'll highlight cool new Web 2.0 apps, tools and technologies. Hopefully, there will be something interesting for everyone, no matter if you are a business user, IT manager or a software developer.
First things first. What is Web 2.0 anyway, you might ask?
Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the last two years, it is hard not to notice the term "Web 2.0" mentioned practically everywhere on the Web. In fact, pretty much all popular Web applications are now calling themselves Web 2.0 companies. Understanding what all this really means might beg a different question...
First, a bit of history. The term "Web 2.0" was first coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2004 and was used as the name of a conference that got industry leaders together to debate on what this new "second generation" Internet revolution is about. Subsequently, there was a 2005 conference and the recently held Web 2.0 Summit in San Franciso, just two weeks ago.
In simple terms, Web 2.0 is about new ways of using the Web and associated new technologies. For example, it is about harnessing collective intelligence where the value of a product is not the software itself (very often, there is no software but service), but from having a mass of people using it to share information and knowledge, as well as to collaborate. Great examples of collective intelligence includes Wikipedia, del.icio.us, flickr and, of course, YouTube. It is about software as services, leveraging the long tail and more. Web 2.0 is also about new technologies, such as tags, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, AJAX, Web standards, and Javascript RIA. Already overloaded? Don't worry. In the coming weeks, I'll highlight some cool new Web 2.0 apps to help demystify this techno mambo jumbo.
By the way, if you are a new Web 2.0 startup in this region, I would like to hear from you. Perhaps, I can highlight your app in my future blogs.
In the meantime, if you are looking for something fun to do that is related to Web 2.0, check out these interesting Web sites: Web 2.0 validator, Web 2.0 Logo Creator, Web 2.0 Logos, and Web2Logo.
It is a bit ironic that I should end my first blog on Web 2.0 with a note on the current buzz--Web 3.0 (perhaps, I should rename this blog Web x.0). On second thoughts, I'll leave that as a topic for next week's blog.