Web 2.0 is a term most undeniably associated with web applications. Its primary focus is on applications that enable information sharing, interoperability, user-centred design, and such collaboration via the use of the internet. It has been described as “a cumulative change in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web”.
A Web 2.0 site permits the user to interact and collaborate with others to create the content in a virtual community. Thus, mostly, Web 2.0 includes social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services and web applications which focus on interaction or collaboration.
Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information. By increasing what was already possible in "Web 1.0", they provide the user with more user-interface, software and storage facilities, all through their browser. This has been called "Network as platform" computing. Users can provide the data that is on a Web 2.0 site and exercise some control over that data. These sites may have an "Architecture of participation" that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.
|
