What is Web 2.0?

Web2.0: Second coming or Sound and Fury?20 April 2006

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

-- MacBeth V.v.

Agenda

> Web2.0: The Sound and the Fury

> Trends, components and design patterns

> Examples of Web2.0 applications

> Implications

> Summary and resources

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[wink]

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Web2.0: Miscellaneous definitions

> “The Web as Platform”– Tim O’Reilly

> “The Web as Platform for __________”– Richard McManus

> “Web2.0 means using the Web the way it’s meant to be used. The ‘trends’ we’re seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the Web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it during the Bubble.”– Paul Graham

> “Web2.0 is where [the seeds of new and interesting technologies] take root in the soil of business.”– John Battelle

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Web2.0: Miscellaneous definitions (cont’d)

> “Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core.” – Tim O’Reilly

> “Web2.0 is a marker of the reinvigoration of competition more than technology.”– Danah Boyd

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Clear as an unmuddied lake, me brother...

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Even better (from Tim O’Reilly)

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Buzzwords (New economy bull**** generator 2.0)

> Services and Applications

> Perpetual Beta

> Mashup; remixability; remix culture

> Read-write Web

> Tagging; folksonomies; tagclouds

> The Long Tail

> AJAX

> RSS; syndication; feeds; feed aggregators

> Social networking; YASNS

> Open _______ (open-source, open APIs, open standards)

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Anatomy of a buzzword

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Can we simplify things?

Web2.0 lies at the crossroads of many trends

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Web2.0 might be...*

> about Web applications and services

> supported by a collection of (previously existing) technologies

> a collective feeling that something is changing and growing in how the Internet is used

> an indicator of broader social and business trends

> surrounded by a lot of hype

> obsessive navel-gazing by a small group of people

> consistent with trends in previous technological innovations

> a stepping stone

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* in my opinion

Web2.0 is NOT...

> the second coming

> strictly a matter of technology

> meaningful in the sense of software version numbers

> something every company absolutely has to pick up and use

> the future of the Web

> a clearly defined service offering or application “space”

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10 Issues facing Web2.0 Today (from Dion Hinchcliffe)

> Excessive hype

> Lack of a simple definition

> Aging poster children

> Needing a permaconnection

> AJAX as the official Web2.0 experience

> Excessive attention on the technology

> Really bad adherents

> Blogging instead of doing

> Not facing hard truths

> Adopting the lightweight creation model

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Trends, componentsand design patterns

Acronyms, abbreviations and Web2.0

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> AJAX: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (1997)

> RSS and Atom: Syndication technologies (1998 + 2004)

> XML: Extensible Markup Language (1996)

> XHTML + CSS: Web markup and style (2000 + 1996)

> PHP: PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (1994) (open-source)

> MySQL: Database system (1995) (open-source)

> Apache: Web server (1995) (open-source)

> Platforms: Rails, Laszlo, Struts, ... (200x) (open-source)

Miscellaneous Tools and Web2.0

> Blogs

> Wikis

> P2P networks and protocols

> Social Networking infrastructures

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Infrastructure and Web2.0

> Telecommunication network growth

> Broad availability of high-speed Internet connections

> Cheap and ubiquitous Web hosting

> Cheap storage

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Content and Web2.0

> User-generated content adds value (sometimes)

> Power shift occurs

> Democracy in content-creation, classification and rating processes

> Link network acts as both filter and firehose

> Reputation systems gain importance

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Design Evolution and Web2.0

> User-centered design is key

> IA and information design mature

> Perpetual beta and design revisionism

> Simplicity is key for many services

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Human social behaviors

> Web mirrors real-world social complexity

> Social networks writ digital

> Rise of topic-based microcommunities

> Reputation systems and trust matter

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From TechCrunch 04.20.06

Business and Web2.0

> Climate of innovation and excitement

> Advertising works

> Services services services

> Niche markets are viable and desirable

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Economics and Web2.0

> Bubble2.0? Not really

> No IPOs

> Acquisition strategies common

> Small, critical service offerings (Web of Applications)

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Folksonomies: Example by deconstruction

Folksonomy: Taxonomy for the Masses

> “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” – Eric Raymond, paraphrasing Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux

> Taxonomy = Directories (Web1.0)

> Folksonomy = Tags or Keywords (Web2.0)

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Folksonomy and Web2.0

> Democracy: User-generated classification

> Community: Derive power from the network (Metcalfe’s Law)

> Content: Serendipity and massive linkage

> Technology: Feeds for tags

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But is it useful? The debate rages on...

> Folksonomists: “the death of taxonomy” (Tim O’Reilly), “ontology is overrated” (Clay Shirky)

> Others: “hyperbole” and “apophenia” (Peter Morville)

> Exemplifies a broader Web2.0 debate,

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Examples of Web2.0 applications

Wikipedia: Poster child of the Read-Write Web

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Netflix: AJAX

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Gmail: More AJAX

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busmonster.com: Did I mention AJAX?

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del.icio.us: Bookmarks + folksonomies

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Flickr: Photos and folksonomies

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Ning: Roll-your own ... and folksonomies

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digg: Users as editors

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reddit: Embedded ranking systems + “reputation”

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Amazon: Six degrees of reputation

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(See “Six degrees of reputation: the use and abuse of online recommendation systems” (Shay and Finch))

Amazon: A9 - content on steroids

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Netvibes: AJAX MyYahoo without ads

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popurls.com: for information junkies...

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Implications for Web design

Implications for Web design

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> Web experience design is changing

> Shift away from page-based interaction models is significant

> We may need new approaches to how we review and present our work to clients

> We may need to rethink the design process for some projects (i.e., potentially explore XP-style rapid, iterative development cycles with interactive prototyping)

Implications for Web design (cont’d)

> Impact will be felt in many different areas

> Strategy: Understanding of trends and how they impact the content, services, and products delivered by companies

> Interaction design: Evolution of Web interaction models; new ways of wireframing? New ways of presenting interaction approaches? Greater need for understanding of technology

> Editorial: Vocabulary for services and tools; Ability to articulate how the Brave New Web World enhances customer experiences; Insight into broader universe of user-generated content (and its pitfalls)

> Graphic design: Trend (push?) in many sectors towards highly simplified visual designs focused on high information density, minimal graphic elements

> Technology: Greater demands on developers; impact on testing; cross-platform implementation challenges

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Implications for Identity design and Brand building

> No direct implications for the visual expression of brand identity

> Large implications for how companies interact with their consumers (e.g., business models for content and services)

> Could lead to the downfall of many traditional business models (e.g., packaged software for some products)

> We need to think through the implications of “Web2.0” for our clients – before they do

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Broader implications

Roadkill on the Web2.0 megahighway

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Oh, what a tangled Web we’ve woven!

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> Are we burying ourselves in complexity?

> We can’t filter the infoverse without our technologies

> Whose truth is it, anyway?

> Things are dynamic, but are they durable?

> Emergent properties are still hidden

Summary and resources

Summary

> Web2.0 is a concept, not a concrete thing

> Avoid the term (if you can); avoid the hype

> Trends cross many different domains

> Deep implications for user-centered design, usability, and design processes

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Resources

> A few starting points:http://www.readwriteweb.com/

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2005/09/05/why_web20_matte.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

http://web2.wsj2.com/

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2005/10/the_amorality_o.php

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