Web 2.0. It's the talk of the web. Google offers no less than 242.000.000 search results. But what is this 2.0 thing? Tim O'Reilly (at the top of the Google list) offers an explanation so broad that almost anything can be deemed web 2.0.
As I see it web 2.0 is basically about user orientation, participation and involvement. But does that really call for the introduction of a whole new term? Hasn't the web always been about involving users? I remember attending web conferences in the late nineties where dialog, conversation and collaboration were essential keywords. The social web was a topic even before the dot-com bubble burst.
Among other things Wikipedia has this to say on the matter:
"[web 2.0] means whatever its proponents decide that they want it to mean in order to convince the media and investors that they are creating something fundamentally new, rather than continuing to develop and use well-established technologies."
I'm not sure if this is the case. But I do know that the term and the hype surrounding it somehow bothers me.
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