Assignment 2: Web 2.0

A) Describe what Web 2.0 means to you.

B) Look up Web 2.0 on a site such as Wikipedia. Describe any controversies you find.




A.
Having being one of a handful of the current 20-somethings that started out in the world of computers back before the advent of public internet and new Windows and Mac systems, I believe that 'Web 2.0' defines sort of the 'new generation' of the internet, mainly that of the MySpace/Blogging age. Many of the people my age and older either don't blog at all, or are fans of the old school, like the original LiveJournal of ten years ago. Any more, though, the internet has become more and more about social networking, which gave way to the sites like MySpace, Twitter, and the like. Internet users are becoming younger and younger. The internet is a versatile, constantly changing media, and as such it seems to grow with each new generation.

B.
Web 2.0 has really only been a couple of years in the making, roughly ten as documented by the article 'Fragemented Future' by Darcy DiNucci in 1999. As such, there are some who don't view it as being a legit era in internet technology. The creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Breners-Lee, even went so far as to call it nothing more than a 'peice of jargon'.

However, like the phrases used to describe various generations as a whole (ie Generation X, Generation Y, ect), Web 2.0 has been accepted by many as the way to describe the way the internet has grown. Even though no update of technical specifications occured doing this transition, it simply meant that the dotcom bubble of the early internet crashed, a 'new' interenet rose from its ashes. The internet was always to be about communication through the world, but it seems to this blogger that now is the time that it's finally being implimented and put to use.