What is Web 2.0? Ideas, Technologies and Implications for Education
by Paul Anderson
February 2007
Executive Summary
Within 15 years the Web has grown from a group work tool for scientists at CERN into a global information space with more than a billion users. Currently, it is both returning to its roots as a read/write tool and also entering a new, more social and participatory phase. These trends have led to a feeling that the Web is entering a 'second phase'-a new, 'improved' Web version 2.0. But how justified is this perception?
This TechWatch report was commissioned to investigate the substance behind the hyperbole surrounding 'Web 2.0'. It reports on the implications this may have for the UK Higher and Further Education sector, with a special focus on collection and preservation activities within libraries.
By separating out Web technologies from the more recent applications & services, it will be easier for decision makers to act on the strategic implications of Web 2.0The report establishes that Web 2.0 is more than a set of 'cool' and new technologies and services, important though some of these are. It has, at its heart, a set of at least six powerful ideas that are changing the way some people interact. Secondly, it is also important to acknowledge that these ideas are not necessarily the preserve of 'Web 2.0', but are, in fact, direct or indirect reflections of the power of the network: the strange effects and topologies at the micro and macro level that a billion Internet users produce.
The report argues that by separating out the discussion of Web technologies (ongoing Web development overseen by the W3C), from the more recent applications and services (social software), and attempts to understand the manifestations and adoption of these services (the 'big ideas'), decision makers will find it easier to understand and act on the strategic implications of 'Web 2.0'. Indeed, analysing the composition and interplay of these strands provides a useful framework for understanding its significance.