Web 2.0

As I read through this article I thought about a discussion I had a while back concerning Presidential elections. The discussion was not about specific politics but about the millions of dollars a candidate would spend on research into the image that he/she should portray in order to win the election. This approach seems to fit the Web 1.0 approach of gathering data and putting it to the use of the specific program or website using it. I think that looking at the failings of Web 1.0 might be the easiest way to define the new approach of web 2.0. The research of Web 1.0 was costly to compile and equally costly to update. Also the information from Web 1.0 was only as good as the latest update.

Web 2.0 it seems to me takes instead takes the information required from the user and rewards them with an enriched experience. This approach not only strengthens the service but also gives the user what they were looking for. This approach seems to be able to be updated much more quickly and cheaply. I do have to admit that the the idea of the “wisdom of the crowds” is at first glance a frightening one. I have heard it said that a group’s IQ is inversely proportional to the number of people in the group. After some consideration though I don’t believe that this adage applies to the case of the Web 2.0 concept. Instead of actually taking a group census Web 2.0 actually takes information from millions of individuals and compiles it as a whole. This is a small but significant difference in that even if there are a few people out there purposely feeding in false information their efforts are crushed under the weight of other users who are using the information and providing information in turn.

In effect I came away from reading this article with some idea of what Web 2.0 is but still slightly confused on an all encompassing definition but when I did some searching on articles that would clarify the concept for me I found that the idea is still a very nebulous one. Of all the articles/blogs I read I think that this one sums that up the best.

Having said all of this, tonight I discovered a new site that I believe to meet the criteria of Web 2.0 and so I will share it here with any who are interested. www.pandora.com