As most of us know, the internet has become a very useful tool in our everyday lives and we can gather nearly endless amounts of information from it that helps direct our lives. We can go shopping, study for an exam, find recipes, find out how to fix the car, build a website, and much more. And what’s interesting is that any of this information we might seek can be provided to us by different people who can live in a variety of different places around the world.
The concept of lots of people putting their ideas together is collective intelligence and has, over the past few years, become the central principle behind Web 2.0. For example, businesses doing business on the internet are tailoring their marketing strategies based on consumer feedback, which is not necessarily the consumer’s purchase of a product, but also where they go once they land on a webpage or what comments they might make while they are there. The information that businesses are able to cultivate from end users directs how that business will market itself on the internet.
For clarification purposes, Web 2.0 is not an application. Rather it’s a conceptual term used in the study of internet advancement and growth. And the research into this field of study indicates that today’s internet business successes are those who have developed techniques and strategies that harness collective intelligence. Yahoo.com is one example of this.
Ebay is another success story of harnessing collective intelligence. Ebay exists because of the collective user activity, whether users are sellers or buyers. This website grows organically from the activity that takes place within it and the company itself enables that activity by providing a context for that activity to take place in and that meets the needs of the users.
Another example of collective intelligence as it relates to its influence in Web 2.0 can be found in the use of open source models. Open source has been around for awhile, and as an example, is what the Linux operating system and the Wikipedia website are founded on. Open source allows users to access interactive communities and production models, use them, as well as make contributions to their improvement. Today Wikipedia is in the top one-hundred of search engine results and is anticipated to be in the top ten in the very near future.
There’s a huge business advantage for any business that employs the concept of collective intelligence. The main one is that a Web 2.0 company, in the end, makes more money. Logically speaking, when users are contributing to the development and advancement of that internet company, that company is saving money in development costs and can then redirect that saved money into other areas of its growth. Additionally, when people make a contribution to something, they feel more of connection to whatever they are contributing to, which can translate into a loyalty to a company and their products or services. In one sense collective intelligence can become a means of networking and is the key to market success in Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 refers to the “next generation” of the internet, although the technology isn’t new. Many of the features of Web 2.0 have been around since the internet was invented, but it’s only been in the last few years that the “generation Y” crowd has really begun to maximize its potential.
Web 2.0 is a much more interactive version than the original web 1.0. With web 1.0 websites were largely informational. With web 2.0, sites have become much more interactive through technological advances. Some of the most prominent examples of this include social networking sites like MySpace, Twitter, and Face book or sites such as Flickr or YouTube. These sites, and many more like them, are much more interactive than in the past. You can leave a tweet on Twitter, or write on someone’s wall at Face book or leave comments on media posted on Flickr or YouTube. These are features that were not available with web 1.0.
Things like blogs, podcasts, wikis, and RSS feeds have made web 2.0 very popular. But according to the creator of the world wide web, person to person contact is always what the web was intended to provide and the phrase “web 2.0” is just that…a catch phrase. The technology hasn’t really changed, what has changed is the way that people use it.
Web 2.0 is important for a number of reasons. For starters it has made a variety of functions available that were never available on a large scale before. As more and more people spend more of their time in front of the computer things like social networking sites, blogs and live video chats are becoming more important than ever before. Major companies, universities, celebrities and even some governments are making use of web 2.0 to reach a greater number of people, no matter where in the world they are. The President of the United States, who is famous for being the most technologically advanced of all the American Presidents, has instituted a blog and RSS feed on the official White House page, along with a page where anyone in the world can send an email to the Office of Public Liaison, which handles correspondence for the President. They are also planning more web 2.0 features in the coming weeks and months.
The features of web 2.0 are revolutionizing the way we work and interact. For example, a number of companies are now allowing workers to telecommute. With the high cost of maintaining office buildings, energy costs and ever rising gas prices, it makes more economical sense for workers to be able to work from home and with the features of web 2.0, it’s easier for companies to monitor that their employees are actually working when they are supposed to be. Features like real time video chat and web conferencing people from all over the world can work together without getting on a plane, or even leaving their homes in some cases. Another very popular activity is social shopping. This is usually done through the popular social networking sites. It involves multiple people logging on together to go shopping online, instead of meeting friends at the mall.
As time goes on, and we become increasingly dependent on our computers, the web will no doubt keep up and in fact web 3.0 is in development. I’m sure many people can’t wait to see what it has in store.
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