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Web 2.0
The changes of the World Wide Web over the past few years have been so profound that
the industry has adopted the term "Web 2.0" to portray the significance of newer
applications like blogs, social networking, podcasts, software as a service (SaaS), RSS
feeds, Wikis, and many other forms of many-to-many publishing and collaboration.
HTML is now almost old-fashioned as it gives way to languages like the Extensible
Markup Language and Java, and their combination, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and
XML), designed to bring unprecedented power to the browser.
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The web as a platform
Web 2.0 has been regarded as a set of principles and practices defining the core around
which web applications, services and technologies revolve. Applications that are dynamic
and simple to use, instead of static pages. Applications that you can connect to from other
applications or even other devices (hand-held or not), instead of relatively isolated
websites. Finally, web applications that behave just like their desktop counterparts,
instead of plain, linear-navigation websites that load slowly in your browser.
Tim O'Reilly pinpoints the transitions that we all make unknowingly from Web 1.0 to
Web 2.0
While Netscape formerly promoted a desktop application that would integrate some web
services, Google, by contrast demands a capability that Netscape never needed or had –
database management. Behind all the software tools that Google offers, there's a
specialized database.
With the advent of Web 2.0 principles, more and more software products will be
conceived as web applications and delivered as services. Customers will be paying for the
use of these services, and not for a license they could buy, which means spending less
cash and time on building or buying a new application, and using a pre-built one, for
example, iTunes, a cross-device, web-backed application delivered as a service to
millions of music listeners.
Interactive websites
Web 2.0 is about consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including
individual users. With the advent of lightweight technologies such as RSS and Atom,
isolated personal sites are being replaced by inter-connected blogs. RSS feeds keep users
updated in real time, thus turning the Internet into a live web or interactive websites.
Publishing is being replaced by participation. Wikipedia, the biggest open access
encyclopedia on the Internet, allows its users to add or edit entries.
Web 2.0 critics argue that participation is leading to a loss of control: people contribute,
but there is no central authority to coordinate and control. But what happened is that
software gets better the more people use it. And Companies are aware of this and started
to treat users as co-developers.
Because Web 2.0 applications are based on open source, lightweight technologies, it is
often too easy to hack into them. Google Maps has been deciphered long before
becoming a mainstream or stable application. Moreover, websites that combine
information and services from various sources to offer a unified, integrated user
experience are emerging.
However, intellectual property advocates may feel disappointed or threatened by the new
trends. Web 2.0 requires giving up control and ownership of information. The driving
principle behind syndication is that information is meaningless to someone else if they
can't repurpose it to make sense of it in their context.
How will web 2.0 affect US?
The new trends on the Internet probably already affect us, without even knowing it. Here
is what we should expect from Web 2.0 as an Internet user:
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You will navigate easier and find matching results for your search queries
appropriate for your context.
You will use websites just as you use desktop applications: seamless navigation,
without interruptions of your activity.
You will be able to customize user interfaces according to your needs and
preferences.
It will be easier to stay in touch with friends and partners, share ideas, media and
information and keep updated.
You will have a say in shaping the applications you use
You will put your knowledge to use, by co-authoring content on encyclopedias
and wikis.
If you're a web developer, Web 2.0 will affect your work in a considerable way.
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You will be able to easily extend and use web services from third-parties in your
own applications.
You will use cheaper (often free) pre-built applications, rather than buying and
hosting your own.
You will see and use improvements “as they happen”. No longer will you have to
wait months for new features to be implemented or old bugs to be fixed.
You will be able to connect to web services from a variety of applications and
hardware devices.
Your development strategy will shift from coding everything from scratch (“reinventing the wheel”) to assembling ready-made components (“making a better
wheel”).
Internet2
"Internet2 has been working diligently with the state education networks across the
country to bring next-generation internet capabilities to the K-12 community," Through
this program, we can enable participants to leverage the latest in networking technology
to collaborate, share experiences, and learn from one another in real-time."
Schools can use Internet2-based streaming technology to allow students to interact better
with their course material. Studies shows that teachers after letting students using the new
technology, the number of students getting better grades increased.
In music, while musicians are playing together still must be in the same room physically,
music educators are using Internet2 for a handful of advanced music classes where a
student and a master teacher are in different locations.
In chemistry an electron microscope that is used and controlled over the Internet2
backbone by educators and students in remote locations.
Giving schools access to high-quality video and conferencing tools enabling students to
view full-screen images without the blurriness attributed to lower-speed connections.
Unlike the traditional internet, where video sometimes appears sluggish and delayed.
With Internet2, "students make the great leap from studying science to being scientists.
The technology also has provided an opportunity for students and teachers to gather
online and interact with people from all corners of the world.