Blueprint for 'Web 2.0'

For anything that is complex to be successfully constructed, a blueprint is necessary. That is no different for Web 2.0. ‘Web 2.0’ is a constantly changing term that describes our World Wide Web. (O’Reilly) The term is constantly changing because our web as we know it is constantly being altered. (O’Reilly) It signifies the main differences from today’s current Web and the previous web of the past, known as ‘Web 1.0.’ (O’Reilly) “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 those principles, at a varying distance from that core.” (O’Reilly) One of the main factors for the ultimate success of Web 2.0 is participation.

The success of Web 2.0 is based on the size of its’ databases. These data banks determine how much information is available to the user. The more data that is available to the user, the more successful the database will be. According to Dan Bricklin, there are three ways to build large databases. The first way is to “pay people to do it.” (O’Reilly) The next way is to “get volunteers to perform the same task.” (O’Reilly) The third way is to do what Napster started. “Napster set its defaults to automatically serve any music that was downloaded, every user automatically helped to build the value of a shared database. This same approach has been followed by all other P2P file sharing services.” (O’Reilly) Another example showing that Napster’s idea of ‘internet decentralization’ proves to work is that of BitTorrent. (O’Reilly) Every user of the program BitTorrent is also a ‘server.’ (O’Reilly) This works by, “files are broken up into fragments that can be served from multiple locations, transparently harnessing the network of downloaders to provide both bandwidth and data to other users.” (O’Reilly) “BitTorrent demonstrates a key Web 2.0 principle: the service automatically gets better as more people use it” (O’Reilly)

After reading about how Napster started the idea of ‘internet decentralization’ and the idea of making users work as servers, we know participation is a key aspect of Web 2.0. (O’Reilly) I agree with O’Reilly’s statement of “users add value” to the World Wide Web, because they serve as databases for unlimited amounts of files and information as many programs and other users download right from there personal files that are acting as servers.

Summary from: O’Reilly, Tim. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved August 21, 2008 from
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web20.html.