Web 2.0 Re-examined: Part 2 - What is Web 2.0?
December 7, 2006 – 6:17 pm by coachwei | Category web 2.0 |Web 2.0 Re-examined: the Paradigm Shift, Technology Stack and Business Value
What Is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 is the next evolution of the web that has a new usage paradigm as well as a new technology paradigm. The former is characterized by “architecture of participation” and the latter is characterized by “architecture of partition”.
The “Consumer-centric” View Causes Confusion
There is no doubt that the “web 2.0” phenomenon is ignited by the success of consumer websites like MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. From these consumer website, analysts established “social networking” via the network effect as a key feature of web 2.0. Though it is possible that enterprise oriented social computing applications may emerge to address specific enterprise concerns, it is not clear how social networking can change enterprise IT on a more fundamental level. Analysts further characterized “Architecture of Participation” as another key element of web 2.0, as evident from YouTube and Flickr. Similarly it is unclear whether/how “architecture of participation” would impact enterprise IT mission. Enterprise IT’s mission is simple: to enable and facilitate the interaction and integration of IT systems and people. There is no doubt that web 2.0 applications like blogs and wikis based on “architecture of participation” can be useful to enterprises, but is there anything beyond blogs and wikis?
The key technology behind most consumer web 2.0 websites, Ajax, is not new. The popular “mashup” concept sounds new but in reality is based on what has been built into the browser for many years. The “consumer-centric” perspective limits how we look at the technology aspect of web 2.0 and leads to the conclusion that web 2.0 involves no technology advancement.
Further, “architecture of participation”, “social networking” and “harness the collective intelligence” are all usage patterns. They do not relate to technology. In fact, they can be supported well on web 1.0 technologies; reinforcing the common belief that web 2.0 has no technology foundation but rather a buzzword created by marketers.
The Differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Tim O’Reilly observed the differences between web 1.0 and web 2.0 from a consumer perspective in his original essay:
| Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| DoubleClick | –> | Google AdSense |
| Ofoto | –> | Flickr |
| Akamai | –> | BitTorrent |
| mp3.com | –> | Napster |
| Britannica Online | –> | Wikipedia |
| personal websites | –> | blogging |
| evite | –> | upcoming.org and EVDB |
| domain name speculation | –> | search engine optimization |
| page views | –> | cost per click |
| screen scraping | –> | web services |
| publishing | –> | participation |
| content management systems | –> | wikis |
| directories (taxonomy) | –> | tagging (”folksonomy”) |
| stickiness | –> | syndication |
From Consumer Web 1.0 to Consumer Web 2.0
From an enterprise perspective, web 2.0 introduces a very different set of changes:
| Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Browser | –> | Application Client Container |
| HTML | –> | Declarative application markup |
| HTTP(pull, unreliable) | –> | Push, pub/sub, reliable |
| Application Server | –> | Mashup Server |
| Appilcation Integration | –> | Enterprise Mashup/SOA |
| Press release | –> | Corporate blogs |
| Packaged software | –> | On demand/Saas |
| Close source | –> | Open source |
| Top down (dictatorship) | –> | Bottom up (democracy) |
| Superbowl Ad/TV | –> | Google Ad |
From Enterprise Web 1.0 to Enterprise Web 2.0
The Two Pillars: Consumer Web 2.0 and Enterprise Web 2.0
Web 2.0 has two pillars: consumer web 2.0 and enterprise web 2.0. These two do overlap, in particular, in the area of social computing.
Consumer web 2.0 and enterprise web 2.0 have different characteristics, as shown below:
| Consumer Web 1.0 | Enterprise Web 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture of Participation | Architecture of Partition | |
| Social networking | On Demand computing/SaaS | |
| Harness collective intelligence | Enterprise social computing | |
| HTML Mashup | Enterprise mashup | |
| Rich User Experience | Rich User Experience | |
| The Web As Platform | The Web As Platform |
Key Characteristics of Consumer Web 2.0 and Enterprise Web 2.0
The technology paradigm shifts with web 2.0 brings tremendous, tangible and measurable ROI to corporate IT. Further, the new possibilities enabled by web 2.0 such as social computing are bringing corporate IT to new horizons.
5 Responses to “Web 2.0 Re-examined: Part 2 - What is Web 2.0?”
You are confused. It is just plain not impossible to categorize web based technologies. Just because they work different doesnt mean they are part of a new paradigm. That is plainly called technological innovation, not WEB 2.0. If you fail to innovate you are still WEB 1.0, If you find a new and exciting way of processing online data than it is WEB 2.0? Who do you think is going to buy that? your investors?
By Anonymous on Dec 10, 2006
I won't see why not possible to look at the web from a technology perspective. It is unclear what you are referring to. I think the point of the blog is to say Web 2.0 has some technology innovations. Not sure of the points that you are making here…
By greg s on Dec 10, 2006
Joe Lea here from IBM. I've been enjoying your blog for some time. A couple comments on the statements above that “it is unclear whether/how 'architecture of participation' would impact enterprise IT mission” and “is there anything beyond blogs and wikis?” I recently spoke with several of our enterprise customers in Japan and China on this topic and found there is a lot of interest in the business applications of social networking. In particular, customers are interested in mining the unstructured data from social networks to help shape new products/services or to better market existing products/services. Another example in this category that I think we'll see more businesses embrace is the “decision market” like the Hollywood Stock Exchange or Iowa Electronic Markets.
By Joe Lea on Feb 19, 2007