Ideas Behind Web 2.0

What is web 2.0? I kept seeing this "Web 2.0" term come up in discussions and wondered if I was missing out on anything important. Was there a whole other World Wide Web running in parallel to the one I was using? Is it referring to an application or a platform? What happend to Web 1.0?

What I discovered to my relief was that Web 2.0 refers to a group of technologies that have emerged to make the web a more socially engaged and connected envrionment where users are able to create, add, edit as well as just read information on the web. In short tools I had already been using like RSS, Wiki's, Blogs etc.

The term "Web 2.0" was coined in 2004 by Dale Dougherty an Executive of O'Rielly Media Inc whose founder Tim O'Rielly published a popular discussion paper What is Web 2.0. In this article he outlines 7 principles which he believes need to be considered when reffering to something as being Web 2.0 technology.

In an article that further expands on O'Rielly's principles, Paul Anderson (2007) presents 6 key ideas behind Web 2.0 and evaluates the use of these technologies for higher education.

In reading these articles I couldn't help but be struck by the similiarities between the key tenants of Web 2.0 and that of CoP theory. CoP's are driven by the rise of the information age & knowledge management, learning as social practice, and global technonolgy. As I considered Anderson's 6 Key ideas it became evident to me that Web 2.0 is about the convergence of the very same factors.

Consider Anderson's description of 6 key ideas behind web 2.0

1. Individual Production and User Generated Content
Otherwise reffered to as User Generated Content, Web 2.0 like CoP's is about indviduals expressing what they know and making it available to others.

2. Harness the power of the crowd
Andersons reffers to Wisdom of Crowds theory (Surowiecki) which suggests that problems are solved more effectively by groups operating under specific conditions than by the most intelligent indvidual member of the group. CoP's tend to harness a similar dynamic, using the minds and expereinec of all invovled in a particular field to harness the most helpful knowledge.

3. Data on an epic scale
Web 2.0 companies are successful in not only collecting data but also in kowing how to mine it and recombine the data in new ways. This results in the question of who owns the data and IPR. Interestingly a question that is raised when considering the ideas generated by CoP's.

4. Architecture of participation
Services that get better the more people use them is the key idea behind this phrase. Just as a service like Google improves the more people use it, so too CoP's are at their best when members are active and the architecture supporting the community lowers as many barriers as possible to enable participation.

5. Network Effects
One of the Newtork effects mentioned by Anderson is the Long Tail. This concept shows how all niche ideas or items when put together can actually be of greater substance than core or manistream products. CoP's would seem to be about maximisng the effects of the Long Tail in the area of knowledge management for organisations.

6. Openess
The use of open standards and re-use of data to move forward and inovate. This area is not as directly relevant to CoP but it does raise again the problems of IPR but also suggests that low cost tools are avilable to be used by CoP in gathering and archiving their knowledge.

"In short these are ideas about building something more than a global information space; something with much more of a social angle to it. Collaboration, contribution and community are the order of the day and there is a sense in which some think that a new 'social fabric' is being constructed before our eyes" Anderson (2007)pg 14.

The similarilties of thought behind both Web 2.0 and CoP's does raise the question "is one driving the other?" These articles don't answer that question and it is probably a bit of a "chicken and egg" situation. I think both Web 2.0 and CoP's are a response to the new information age and the increasing pervasiveness of social captial theory across all arenas of society.

At very least there is a remarkable confluence and synergy between the principles of Web 2.0 and CoP's which suggests that Web 2.0 services are ideal technological tools for supporting and assisting in building CoP's.


Resources
O'Rielly, T. What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software (2005). Retrieved 28/11/07 from http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228
Anderson, P. What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education. JISC Technology & Standards Watch, Feb 2007. Retrieved 30/11/07 from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf