Web 2.0 ... You Dun Know!

Ah. Alas. I was born into the era. In grade five or six was when my family first got dial-up internet. It was a big deal. I used to keep the land line busy for hours and get into so much trouble with my dad trying to call the house! So much has evolved since then in terms of the web. Who would've thought that everything that we use it for would be possible, sixty years ago?!

Characteristics that define Web 2.0

1. Dynamic Content

For example:
RSS feeds! Really Simple Syndication. I've been trying to push this on everyone to get onto using an RSS feed reader. I use New News Wire on Mac and just copy and paste url addresses of blogs or websites that I want to follow. It's like getting your own personal newspaper at your desktop. I am a big fan.
This is dynamic content because it combines different elements onto one platform. All these blogs can get fed into a 'reader' that acts like your news paper. It is simple to read, like you're reading your email. It automatically downloads new updates into this reader too!

2. User Contribution

An Ode to My First Love from Char Loro on Vimeo.

For example: VIMEO! YOUTUBE! (I personally am more of a fan of Vimeo because it's more of the forum for video artists/film makers. I feel that Youtube is more on-the-go, here's my little digi cam video! Vimeo is HD, baby. HD.)

People can contribute videos, share, comment, re-post, and respond! It's a great forum to be inspired by like minded video artists trying to promote themselves and share their art. I love it.

3. Social Media


I have been on millions of different platforms in terms of Social Media. APT107.com, tambayanonline.net, asianavenue.com, xanga.com, facebook, blackplanet.com, friendster, hi5, myspace... you name it, I had it! I told you, I was born in that generation. Geocities, black starry backgrounds, neon fonts and scrolly mouse graphics! It was all a battle for who had the best layout. A competition for esthetic. Think of it as the early 2000's version of the sneaker culture... it was about sick kicks then, and it was about best web pages in the 2000's. This is what took up a majority of my time when I was younger... Lol.

4. Online Applications

GOOGLE DOCS. It's basically like your Applications folder on your laptop, but all of these can run online! I remember I didn't have Word on my laptop for the longest time, and had to email to my gmail so that I could open and work on these files. Thank the lord for Google Docs! Now Google has released Google Wave! It combines all these applications onto one platform, (combines with dynamic content) and allows you to work on word docs, videos, etc, with a forum of people! I just got the invite... Can't wait to try it out!

5. Harnessing Collective Intelligence


Tagging, tagging, tagging! And I'm not talking about graffiti. The tagging culture in terms of harnessing collective intelligence is an automatic way for the web to organize content. When you tag subjects, part of the name, etc, it makes it easier to search up on search engines such as google and yahoo. Doing this is a great and easy way to share information over the web. So don't forget to tag your videos, tag your pictures!