User account
Recent posts
- Pleasing 2008, even better 2009 on the cards
- Internet gives businesses the flexibility to adapt to business conditions
- Interflora to sue over Google AdWords tactics
- December 8th - the biggest single online shopping day
- Get the tax break that actually helps
- The Power of Change
- UKFast wins MEN Business Award
- It pays to be at the centre of attention
- Internet can be a remedy to the credit crunch
- Beat cyber attacks with prudent vigilance
Archive
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
Subscribe
Web 2 point Oh (no)
Chris Norton, May 30th 2006, 2:53PM
Books of academic criticism of a certain movement, whether literary, artistic or philosophical, always seem to start with the same introduction. Say you're reading about abstract expressionism. The intro will say 'first, what is abstract expressionism? It's hard to define the movement in any definite way'. You will now feel a little annoyed that this author doesn't know what he's talking about. Then the intro will say 'of course, none of the artists discussed in this book would call themselves abstract expressionists'. You will now start wishing you'd picked up the copy of Heat instead of this book about a movement that doesn't seem to exist and that nobody wanted to belong to.
And that, my friends, apart from showing off my extensive knowledge of the art world, is all a bit like Web 2.0. Nobody seems to know what it means, and all the real innovators and cutting edge folk on the web seem to be shunning the label. No wonder - the phrase itself sounds incredibly smug, mainly because of the 'point oh' bit. It is scientifically impossible to say 'Web 2.0' aloud without sounding like a punchable buffoon - try it.
What's more, it's kind of innaccurate: the 'version number' format of the name implies a completely new version of the WWW, where instead, on the sites sited as being part of this exclusive club, all we find is more of a 'Web 1.25' - a web with a few bells and whistles on top. Ben Ramsey has been talking about the need for a new term, now that O'Reilly Media have claimed Web 2.0 as their own - but I'm thinking perhaps the whole buzzword needs to be binned, or at least saved until the web really is revolutionised.
Comments
Leave a comment
(Plain text only)
Giles Smith, May 30th 2006, 3:34PM
If we are now using web 2.Oooh then what can we clasify 'versions' of the web from the past. When web pages were simply text with bigger text as headings was this 'half web' (0.5)? or how about the late 90's when every web designer under our Sun decided that tiling a garish image across the background of their pages and behind text, leaving a completely unreadable mess was good design, and nearly half the websites I ever visited had 'that' animated gif image saying 'Under Constuction' was that Web 0.9 or Web 'Not quite there yet'?
Surely Web 2.0 isn't necessarily refering to a new version of the web rather a new way of using the Internet (remember this), where we are gaining access to new tools and software that is beginning to take advantage of our ever increasing download speeds. Broadband has brought us the ability to throw around large amounts of data all over the world allowing us to use video chat, P2P Networks even take control of your house by telling the oven to start cooking and ordering the tv to record Neighbours and have it ready to go with dinner all from your office desk.
Technology is full of incremental values to show that things are getting better; doesn't 1G, 2G, 2.5G and 3G sound better than; A mobile phone, A mobile phone that calls and sends text messages, A mobile phone that calls, sends text messages and allows some useless function that shows a 'text web', A mobile phone that calls, video calls, sends messages of all kinds and allows you to view the web properly?