DeGroodt Library Youth Services: DeGroodt Digital Dash Week 1: What is Web 2.0?

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

DeGroodt Digital Dash Week 1: What is Web 2.0?

Parents! Hard to keep up with those digital natives (otherwise known as our kids who know everything about computers, but not so much on sharing that info)? Wish you knew a little bit more about where they are coming from?

Welcome to the DeGroodt Digital Dash! Join us as we highlight different technologies and resources each week.

Week 1: What is Web 2.0?
No, it is not a new version of the internet, but rather a different way of using what was already there. Depending on your definition, computers have been along for a very long time. Charles Babbage proposed and developed one of the very first back in the early 1800s. Since then, the technology has continuously been evolving and improving.

Here is a crash course on the history of the internet

History of the Internet Infographic

The Internet was designed to be interactive and a place to share ideas. It was first used by scientific, government, or other research institutions to share ideas and to collaborate. However, for the everyday user, Web 1.0 was static unless you happened to know computer programming. It was a place you found information that others had created.

In more recent years, there has been a surge towards user-centric content. Web 2.0 takes those ideas and concepts about sharing information to another level by allowing the user to take control and generate their own content. It is a more social experience which thrives on virtual communities and collaboration.

infographic by Shanghai Web Design

Some examples of Web 2.0 technologies would include:

Social Network Sites

Blogs

Wikis

Wikipedia

Video and Photo Sharing Sites

Youtube Web 2.0 for Newbies video

The term Web 2.0 began to surface in the internet community in the early 2000s. Rather than generating content that would then be distributed to the consumer, content was being developed for feedback from the consumers. It is constantly being updated with new features, information, and stuff to play with. Participation and collaboration are the keystones of Web 2.0. Users are encouraged to not just look at data and comment, but to add their own data as well. Other attributes of Web 2.0 include collective intelligence, or shared knowledge. Information is shared with other users and built upon.

Slideshare is a wonderful web2.0 tool that allows you to share slide presentations with other users. Check out this explanation on the definition of web 2.0

What is web2.0?

View more presentations from revells

Think about what you do on the internet, you might already being using Web 2.0 and not even know it. Go2web20 lists over 72 pages of different applications that all allow you, the user, to create and share content.

What tech are you most interested in learning about? Remember that the best search engine in the world is right at your public library--- the librarian.