by Sali Earls
Think back a few years, to a time when the internet burst onto computer
screens across the world. Those were the days when computers weren't in every home, and businesses relied on phone, fax
and letter to communicate. When I first discovered the internet, the concept of venturing into cyberspace was somewhat daunting and foreign to me.
The pace of change means that an internet year is apparently less than 3 months, and things have certainly moved on in a short space of time. Websites have evolved and the user experience has become much more about information sharing - with websites like MySpace, del.icio.us and Flickr, the internet is becoming populated with sites that are no longer places to visit, rather they are experiences to have, ways to connect with other like minded people, and opportunities to express yourself.
Sites such as MySpace and YouTube are used by more than 70% of 16-24 year olds in the UK, but most older internet users first heard of such organisations is when Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought MySpace for $580 million. The site, with more than 100 million registered users, and 54 million unique visitors per month, has now been named by Time magazine as one of the "Coolest Websites of 2006".
The site came from the understanding that people, especially young
people, want to be able to express themselves, and put information about themselves, from blogs to photos to videos, somewhere
where all their friends could see. The site allows users to build up their network of friends and many end up with thousands internationally. MySpace is a phenomenon that would not have happened
without the internet, and at its' core is the idea of social networking and social computing, a collective intelligence of millions of like minded people.
This idea of collaboration and online information sharing is one of the core aspects of the next generation web - something that Tim O'Reilly named "Web 2.0".
Type the phrase into Google, and you currently get 122 million citations. There is a buzz and curiosity about this new internet. But, as technology journalist and blogger Paul Boutin said in a recent article, "Web 2.0, everyone's favourite new tech buzzword... What the hell is it?"
At the moment Web 2.0 means different things to different people - to some it's about people - it's a place to collaborate and participate, to share digital assets, from blogs to podcasts to tags; to others it's about technology - Ajax, APIs and mashups. The fact is that to create a Web 2.0 website, you have to embrace both meanings. Technology without participation is not in the spirit of the next generation web.
Erik Aeyelts Averink, EVP Marketing & Corporate Development at content management solution provider Tridion, told itwales.com, "There is much debate and disagreement about what Web 2.0 really is. It is, however, clear that there is a renewed sense of optimism and excitement around the internet that is embodied in the term Web 2.0. When people talk about Web 2.0, they will often mention Wikipedia, Technorati, Flickr, del.icio.us and technologies such as weblogs, wikis, Ajax, RSS, podcasts and the web as the next computing platform. So what is it really? The key seems to be the rise of the power and participation of the consumer and the individual in the online revolution, which is facilitated by new technologies, business models and concepts."
Although the changes appear dramatic, the new internet has developed
over time and Web 2.0 will bring the internet closer to Tim Berners-Lee's original ideas of the web as a democratic place that allowed social interaction and communication.
James Lunn, Group Head Marketing & Business Development at digital marketing agency Cheeze told itwales.com, "At Cheeze we think of Web 2.0 as 'The web your way'. It's the syndication of user driven online content, a medium where people can collaborate and share ideas. It can take many forms; blogs, Flickr, Social Bookmarking and RSS feeds are all part of the Web 2.0 mix. Blogs are synonymous with Web 2.0 and can come in many forms. They're often used as personal diaries, or as a live journal of a particular event, but they all have one thing in common - user driven content. There are no editorial guidelines, no corporate spiel - just honest content from the individual users."
Blogs are an important part of the new internet, enabling people to act as "citizen journalists" and make their point known on any subject. The difference between blogs and the sort of personal homepages that have existed since the early days of the web, is RSS technology. In his article "What is Web 2.0?" published in September 2005, Tim O'Reilly said, "RSS is the most significant advance in the fundamental architecture of the web since early hackers realised that CGI could be used to create database-backed websites. RSS allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it, with notification everytime that page changes."
RSS technology is now used by a variety of organisations to push data to subscribers, from blogs to online media, from stock prices to weather updates.
Many web developers are now using a programming technique called Ajax. Using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML allows developers to create websites which update without refreshing the entire page, thereby enhancing the user experience with increased interactivity, usability and speed. Ajax is suffering some teething troubles in these early days of the next generation web, as it requires users to have JavaScript enabled, and it currently does not make WAI accessibility guideline compliance very easy. However, the promise of Ajax to web developers is the potential to create websites and web applications that are as functionally rich and usable as PC based applications.
The collaboration between people is mirrored in technology, with
organisations sharing their APIs with users and developers. Application programming interfaces give users access to a set of
functions which enable them to replicate those functions elsewhere. An example of this is the Google Maps API that allows users to
embed the Google Maps functionality within their own website using JavaScript. The service is currently free, but many other organisations are offering APIs as a way of driving traffic and ultimately
revenue streams to their sites. As Kelly Abbott said in his article, "A Virtual Tour of the X Channel", "If you
have an open Application Programming Interface (API) via XML, then you can let your customers add value to the core set of data and functions your application provides...The widgets they make from
your API will most likely drive more business your way."
Taking technology interaction to the next level are mashups, websites or applications that adopt content from several sources to create a new service. Some of the more popular mashups are based around Google Maps and housing information, providing users with geographical information about an area in which they may be looking to live. In the USA, this can be exemplified by HnlHousing Maps, a mashup of Google Maps and Craigslist. Although neither affiliated to, nor endorsed by either company, the website provides a valuable service to its users.
What does the next generation web mean for business? Erik Aeyelts Averink of Tridion, says, "While it is still early days, we expect that business will embrace Web 2.0. This will mean that business will not so much try to compete for web traffic with web based communities and blogs but participate in them and might even facilitate Web 2.0 on their own web sites. It is not clear how this eventually will play out, but there are some early interesting examples such as TripAdvisor, a commercial travel site which includes travel stories, photos, views and ratings provided by tens of thousands of travellers.
"Tridion customer Renault Formula 1 positions its website as the centre of its 'own' community of Renault and race fans and uses blogging, chatting, forum, podcasts, RSS and attractive multi media content to create a vibrant community."
The near-ubiquitous nature of broadband means that more people have high speed access to the internet, and are coming to expect more from their internet experience. This creates competitive opportunities for businesses that welcome the possibilities of the next generation web.
Tim O' Reilly says, "Companies that succeed will create applications that learn from their users, using an architecture of participation to build a commanding advantage not just in the software interface, but in the richness of the shared data."
In his article "What is Web 2.0", O'Reilly summarises the core competencies that he feels Web 2.0 companies should embrace:
The next generation web does indeed create competitive opportunities for companies, and SMEs can be dynamic enough to make it work best for them, focusing on the winning formula of compelling brand plus interactive user experience.
Whatever your business, be aware that amongst today's users of MySpace,
Flickr and YouTube are the consumers and developers of tomorrow, who will come to expect an evolving and dynamic
web experience. If you can't offer that to them they will find someone who can.
Businesses should be monitoring the technological environment in which they work as a matter of course, and developers must now make themselves aware of the winds of change sweeping across the internet, and how it might affect their business.
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