Philip's notes

From Webstock

Contents 1 Premise 2 Key characteristics 3 Examples 4 Ethics and ethos

Premise

• web 2.0 = different mindset, tools are (nearly) the same as Web 1.0
• What's the problem: style vs substance? Just a label for a trend.
• the delineation between web 1.0 and web 2.0 is the dot-com bust. 1994 marks the beginning of www - 2001 marked the end of the 1st wave, the tide went out and people realigned their thinking, then the tide started rising again around 2004
• 1.0 (surf/browse web pages - passive) - 2.0 (use web apps - active)
• AJAX changes the workflow - dynamic and direct content/data manipulation
• Maturity of the tools: browsers + javascript + databases
• Maturity of the market: wikipedia, blogs, myspace - people now have the mindset/expectation to write online, not just read
• Does web 2.0 = Google?

Key characteristics

• user participation
• User generated content - both explicit (comments) and implicit (user meta data - "People who like this also like")

• read write platform
• web OS
• Web as platform: The video
• John Lewis: Introducing Web 2.0 concepts
• Thinking Points for Building a Web App

Distributed platform:

• Distributed data: RSS, API
• Distributed experiences: embedded players, widgets
• "The market as a conversation."

• network effects - better the more people use it
• network is the computer
• user participation, user generated content
• an application that gets better the more people use it, and in which the value of each contribution is enhanced by others
• contribute without trying - passive and implicit creation and contribution: my behavioural patterns (media collection, usage dates, pages visited) are surfaced as relevant content

Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers by Bradley Horowitz The act of consumption was itself an act of creation, no additional effort expended… I am what I play

• tagging
• metadata as content - Amazon, last.fm, delicious

Web 2.0 for designers

Why AJAX is disruptive

       * The End of Software Upgrades, Fixes, and Security Patches.
       * Software and Data Available Wherever You Go
       * Isolated Software Can’t Compete with Connected Software

Examples

• Typepad, Wordpress - web apps provide the means of production to publish
• Delicious, Flickr - i collect for me, i define on my own terms, i share - the sum is greater than the parts, gets better the more people use it
• Flickr vs Ofoto
• iTunes vs Last.fm
• gmail vs Outlook
• MovableType vs LiveJournal
• amazoning the news
• Amazon S3
• RSS Bloglines, Reader

• AOL was "beta" version of the web. first experiences communicating and participating online.

• the means of production have never been more accessible, and more powerful
• ruby on rails
• adwords
• ebay, trademe, craigslist - global marketplace

working anywhere, anytime

• shescrafty, turntable - working for clients around the world via email, chat, web

connecting with friends and family making new friends

Ethics and ethos

• decentralisation
• is Google centralising the internet?
• copyright and DRM
• info wants to be free
• consciousness and politics
• DNA
• Advertising is evil. Is Google making advertising not evil?