Web 2.0

Preparing for the class discussion I have tried to get a concept of what Web 2.0 is and underline some critical points. I went trough a wide range of information sources (including Tim O'Reilly paper, of course) attempting to concentrate on key things such as publishing, user participation, effective communication and content.

In my vision Web 2.0 brings 4 primary things together:
1) Search
The value of online data is really significant, cause people spend more and more time obtaining information from the web cutting other activities at the same time (e.g. TV, other traditional media sources)
2) Tools and applications
Google shows fresh approach to many areas of user daily activity building new web services, e.g. Calendar, Picasa, Earth, Maps, etc. Moreover Google also demonstrated new approach to online advertisment, AdSense shows context ad directly related to user search. The successfull model of promotion is unobtrusive and that's exactly what makes a difference between DoubleClick and AdSense. describe Amazon, Ebay models. commercial success.
3) Content and publishing
Users are learning how to communicate directly to other users. The content of webpage sometimes defined not by the publusher, but by the people who use that webpage. Publishing is playing the role of aggregating and giving people free space to sound their thoughts and ideas. I suppose that is one of the reasons that make blogging so popular. Blog sites like Brad Fitzpatrick's LiveJournal, for example, is almost a media brand.
Besides I find out that the relationships between producer, publisher and user have been changed. Publishers don't often get the reward, the middle man (or middleware:-) get the reward instead. Good examples are music and video industry. For instance, if you download the video from YouTube or Google Video, you will recommend the service to others not mentioning the producer of that particular video.

4) Community

to be continued...