Vol. 4: What is Web 2.0? What Distinguishes Web 2.0 from Web 1.0?

In this article, Web 2.0 is defined by defining Social Media, a well-used term together, clarifying the relationship between the two terms, and what distinguishes Web 2.0 from Web 1.0.

1. What exactly is Social Media?

According to Safko and Brake (2009), “social media refers to activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media. Conversational media are Web-based applications that make it possible to create and easily transmit content in the form of words, pictures, videos, and audios.”

Some example of actual usage of social media vehicles being an active member of social media ecosystem is that a person belongs to several online communities such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, use computer, mobile phone and/or any other devices to access and send messages to other members of your group/community to make connections, interact and participate in discussions, read blogs, watch a YouTube video, and listen to podcast.

2. What about Web 2.0?

The author has defined Web 2.0 as “the Internet that enables social media tools and applications that are interactive and multi-dimensional, with primary goal of enabling communities to form and interact with one another.” from multiple sources.

According to Safko and Brake (2009, p6-7), Web 2.0 is somewhat of a misnomer because “it does not refer to a new and improved version of the World Wide Web, the information superhighway that’s become ubiquitous over the last decade or so. There really is no new physical version of the Internet.” Safko and Brake goes on to say that to continue the analogy, there are many more interesting vehicles traveling on the highway and some incredible places to stops along that highway, thanks to Web 2.0 technologies and the inventive people behind them (2009, p7). What they say is that social media and Web 2.0 come together and the two terms are closely related and social media refer to tools and applications, and that the primary goal of the two is enable communities to form and interact with another.

According to Dubral in his blog article Channel Website Obituary. R.I.P., 2.0 websites are interactive and multi-dimensional, evolving into full-blown end-user communities, and visitors engage in conversation via blogs, forums, videos and more, whereas 1.0 websites are static and one-dimensional and visitors are expected to read information and leave. Although there does not seem to be other sources that explicitly give definition of Web, 2.0, the term Web 2.0 is used in the context defined by Safko and Brake and Channels of the Future in other sources.

3. What distinguishes Web 2.0 from Web 1.0?

From the above, it can be summarized that the key distinctions between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are static vs. interactive and one-dimensional vs. multi-dimensional, and key word of 2.0 websites (Web 2.0 websites) is “community”. Concrete elements that distinguish Web 2.0 from Web 1.0 are best stated by Kuchinskas in her blog article Learning from Web 2.0 (Without the Web). Kuchinskas states that the core principles of Web 2.0 are:-

- Mix and Match: Data or applications can be combined in new ways to create new opportunities.
- Distribute Widely: Instead of waiting for customers to come to the website owner, products or services are released where customers already are.
- Enable, Do not Control: Instead of forcing customers to do things a certain way, it is made easy for them to do it in whatever way works best.

She then also goes on to say that smart companies have applied these philosophies in offline environment to realize the following, which all enabling communities to form and interact with one another:-

- Mashups: Combine two data sources or services to create a new one.
- Syndication: People can receive whatever content they are interested in automatically via RSS, atom feeds etc.
- Personalization: Web 2.0 encourages personalization and customization, allowing customers to tailor products to suit their preferences to make product more useful and increase users’ interest in it.
- Mass Collaboration: Web 2.0 technologies embrace the idea that the more people use a service or application, the stronger and more valuable it becomes, as in the case of the Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace etc.

It is with the above philosophy and methods that Web 2.0 websites can form communities with rich information and content compared to Web 1.0 websites, leading to more “sticky” websites. A web user (customer) stays in such a Web 2.0 “sticky” website longer than Web 1.0 website and returns more frequently to such a “sticky” Web 2.0 website than a Web 1.0 website. This means that retention and loyalty of web users (customers) is a focus of Web 2.0 websites, and it can be said that as websites evolve from Web 1.0 to 2.0 and maybe 3.0 and so forth in the future, the more customer retention and engagement becomes the critical KFS (key factors for success).

After all, Web 2.0 websites (social media vehicles) are all about engagement with web users of customers, prospects, employees and all other stakeholders by facilitating one or more of communication, collaboration, education and entertainment. In fact, these constitute the 4 pillars of Web 2.0/social media strategy.

In the next article, the social media ecosystems that Web 2.0 technologies realize will be introduced.



References:-

Safko, Lon and Brake, David K (2009), The Social Media Bible – Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Dubrall, Michael (2009) Channel Website Obituary. R.I.P.
http://gilwellgroup.blogspot.com/2009/07/channel-website-obituary-born-1995-died.html

Kuchinskas, Susan (2009) Learning from Web 2.0 (Without the Web)http://www.bnet.com/2403-13241_23-66095.html?tag=content;col1


People who have read this article may want to read:-

Vol.1: Introduction
http://megumioyanagi.blogspot.com/2009/09/future-direction-of-web-20-and-internet.html

Vol.2: How Companies are Benefiting from Web 2.0?
http://megumioyanagi.blogspot.com/2009/10/vol2-how-companies-are-benefiting-from.html

Vol.3: Background of Writing the Blog Articles
http://megumioyanagi.blogspot.com/2009/10/vol3-background-of-writing-blog-article.html