Web 2.0 Tools - Social Software

Definition

“Web 2.0 is a set of economic, social, and technology trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the Internet

– a more mature, distinctive medium characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects."

O'Reilly Radar

The Traditional Web - “1.0”

• Mostly static pages

• Centrally controlled

• Traditional producer-consumer model

• Minimal Participation by the users

• Passive consumers

• Web “1.5”– More dynamic, data-driven content– Some Flash-based rich clients

What is Web 2.0?

• Web 2.0 is not AJAX!

• Not any particular technology– A new approach, attitude, way of thinking

• Coined by O’Reilly Media and MediaLive– Brainstorming session after the dot-com

bubble burst– Trying to figure out where the post-bubble

web was headed

What is Web 2.0? (Tim O’Reilly)

• Strategic positioning– The web as a platform (Google v. Netscape)

• User positioning– You control your own data (Data is the next Intel Inside)

• Core competencies– Services, not packaged software– Architecture of participation (RSS)– Cost-effective scalability – Re-mixable data source and transformations– Software above level of single device (iPod/iTunes)– Collective intelligence (hyperlinks, users as co developers)

Web 1.x: Producer-Consumer

• Producers live in the universe of the Consumers

Web 2.0: Consumer feeds self

• Producers create the universe in which Consumers feed themselves

• Web 2.0 is described by O’Reilly as “a way of thinking, a new perspective on the entire business of software - from concept through delivery, from marketing through support.

• Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry.

• Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them.

• Web 2.0 software is delivered as a service, not as a product.

• In this term Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is evolving, and Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming a new business model.

Technologies

• Wikis

• Blogs

• Podcasts/Vodcasts

• Social Networking Sites

Wikis

• A wiki is computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages – Social Knowledge tool.

• Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites, and are increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets for Knowledge Management.

Wikis

• Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work".

• One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.

Wikis Benefits

• Group organizing

• Writing & knowledge building

• Community development & building

• Public or private

Blogs

• Blog is short for Web log.

• Publicly available web pages, with personal views and links expressing the opinions and observations of a particular person.

• Usually on a specific topic or theme (political, personal, topical, health, travel, research, etc.)

• Updated regularly reflecting the personality of the author. 

Blogs

• Can be online diaries/news forums that feature links to news items and stories from across the Internet's World Wide Web.

• Most blogs are headed by an individual called a blogger and many of these are people who want to bring their own views online.

• Other bloggers are journalists or industry insiders who create forums for expressing their opinions without editorial constraint.

Benefits

• Marketing tool.

• Expert

• Introducing new products and services

• Active instrument to CRM

• New sales channels, new revenues (product review, generating traffic for advertisements revenues etc.)

Benefits• Internal communication and team work (searchable

content across organizational boundaries)• Project-related blogs – all news are centered across

project-centered blog, following chronology of the project execution – thus improving communication, workflow, meetings and time management etc.

• Personal KM – contextualized personal archive (linking huge volumes of often disconnected information and putting personal context to the information).

• Learning channel – blogs improved class discussions and participation of learners.

Blogs Examples• Post class materials and class supplements.

• Integrate all types of multimedia (webpages, audio, video, photos, slideshows, etc.).

• Comment modes encourage interaction.

• Team blogs enable engagement.

• Create a class publication

• Student journaling & reflection

Tagging

• Tagging is the practice of assigning “tags” to content. A “tag” describes the category the content belongs to. The whole process is described as folksonomy as opposed to taxonomy. All tags of one site combined can be visualized in a “tag cloud”: the words of the tags are scaled in size proportionally to their usage on the site. This is a very easy way to map and illustrate complex knowledge.

Podcast

• (iPOD broadCAST) is an audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player or computer.

• The "pod" in podcast was coined from "iPod," the predominant portable, digital music player, and although podcasts are mostly verbal, they may contain music.

• Video Podcasts - vodcasts

Podcast

• Using the RSS 2.0 syndication format, podcasts are made available to subscribers just like news feeds.

• The client program that captures the audio feeds and synchronizes them with the music player is a "podcatcher," such as Curry's own iPodder, available at www.indiepodder.org.

Podcasting Process

Access• Subscribe using

podcatcher• Download episode• Playback episode

Create•Record episode •Edit episode

Distribute•Publish episode to webserver•Reference episode in feed

Podcasting in Education

• Distribute course content– Provide overview of week

– Distribute lecture content

– Provide examples

• Add personalization to online classes

• Increase student involvement (i.e., presentations)

• Accommodates mobile learning

• Student presentations or reflection

Podcasting Benefits

• Low-cost, low-barrier tool for disseminating content

• Designed for offline listening

• Content is delivered to students

• Frees learning from physical constraints

• Reaches out to auditory learners

RSS

• RSS is the abbreviation of Rich Site Summary is a very simple subscription service to a certain website. RSS is the most significant advance in the fundamental architecture of the web. RSS allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it, with notification every time that page changes.

• This means by subscribing to a certain “feed”, moving away from the paradigm of “pulling” information to “pushing” the information to the user. In a very simple way this means that the raw content of the site can easily be customized to the specific needs of the audience.

• This method is extremely timesaving, because it allows to get delivered the without the need to visit websites or wikis.

Social Networking Sites

• A Web site that provides a virtual community for people interested in a particular subject or just to "hang out" together.

• Members communicate by voice, chat, instant message, videoconference and blogs, and the service typically provides a way for members to contact friends of other members.

• The "social networking site" is the 21st century term for "virtual community.”

MySpace

• MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally.

• Currently the world's sixth most popular English-language website.

• Third most popular website in the United States, (it has topped the chart on various weeks).

Web Mashup

Web Mashup = API [1] + API [2] + API [N]

• A web mashup is a website or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service.

• Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or so called API. [Source: Wikipedia]

•

• A mashup is defined in Wikipedia as “a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.” The mashup may run on a separate server, or it may run in code that is downloaded onto the client’s machine.

• Mashups can be created by a web site, because another web site, such as Google Maps, provides an application programming interface (API) so that other web sites can interact with it, sending requests and receiving responses.

• The intent is to create new and innovative web sites matching various applications all on a single web page as seen by the user

Virtual worlds and 3D web

• Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE), virtual worlds or 3D sites represent software environment that creates a configurable universe which emulates a number of serviceable aspects of physical reality, such as the concept of space, movable objects, navigation, and communication between (representations of) humans.

Benefits• the emulation of physical topology as a natural

metaphor is a prerequisite for successful groupware• CVE allow for organizing both people and information

spatially• awareness of co-workers, usage policies for tools

and objects is enhanced• allocated space can be separated to allow privacy

and group restrictions• computer-mediated communication between disjoint

places provides a good basis for recording in context (as all communication can be logged instantly)

Summary

• Web 2.0 provides easy-to-use and affordable tools to put information in context.

• Web 2.0 give possibility to keep informed and to emerge new forms of networking centers of information

• Links information to source/profile of avatar, allowing to understand who is the origin of knowledge

• Allow to form opinion across the comments. • Allow to critically discuss the Information

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