Confused?

27th Jan'07

Sorry for being out for so long.. just been busy handling some things. Anyways, coming back into web 2.0, I have been thinking quite hard regarding the true nature of its existence. Before I can actually convince myself as to what are examples of web 2.0, those examples seem outdated. Isn’t that weird? Okay, ill give u examples.. remember how we had put youtube as web 2.0… and thought this video sharing deal has taken life to the next level.. it means we can watch music videos, football highlights, comedy, tv shows, I mean the works! But somehow its not that impressive any longer. Well maybe because ive used it for too long to actually have any impression any more. Or maybe ive started using better utilities! My example here is sopcast,ppstream, tvkoo etc … these softwares are more like televisions with remote controls, airing every single channel in the world live! So if I want music videos, instead of typing in the name of the artist n song every single time.. I can just watch mtv or one of those million music channels that are airing in the world. Forget football highlights! I have been watching all Manchester United matches live and free from Sky sports through sopcast! And instead of getting jacked by the RESNET people down here at university of Warwick, I don’t use p2p softwares to download anymore.. I just watch tv! Now if youtube is web 2.0, is this web 3.0?
Alright, blogs! Blogs are web 2.0 because homepages were web 1.0.. how about video-blogs? Video blogging has caught on like fire in a hay stack. Everyone is at it. It makes life so much easier and makes so much more sense. Now instead of typing my fingers out trying to make people understand what exactly my views are, I just upload a video of me saying it all out! A picture speaks a thousand words.. so a video speaks a… gazillion (if that exists)

Eric Schmidt on Web 2.0

Eric Schmidt is in the middle of the co-founders of Google.

Working on my report on Web 2.0, I visited the web 2.0 summit 2006 website, and noticed theyve put up some good stuff displaying information of what happened at tha summit this year. There is a section offering all the conversations and interviews that took place in the summit in the form of audio as well as video podcasts. Firstly, its kinda cool to see so much web 2.0 in the web 2.0 website! ok anyways, so there is this video interview of Eric Schmidt, the CEO of google posted up there. He talks about googles venture to go and buy out youtube and why they did that. He says google video was doing exceptionally well (even though i am doubtful about it) and it was not about buying competition but instead going ahead and nurturing a company with the correct guidance due to its enormous potential. He talks about google's new office suite (even tho he doesnt like that name). He says its not meant to give microsoft competition and infact it is not the same thing. It is more casual and internet user based but then again he doesnt deny that it can be used professionally by saying no one will mind an easy to use systematic approach whether its for commercial use or home use. However a very interesting point he was asked about was the copyright laws that are being violated by youtube. He seems ignorant to the fact that you can actually watch episodes of tv shows on youtube. He says he doesnt agree with the allegations being put on youtube! Well theyre all waiting for one big company to get into the trap of copyright violations and according to the law and court proceedings the rest will have a guided path to follow, the path which is still not mapped out. I really recommend this interview, it shows brilliance, as well as shades of grey and taps into things behind the shadows that not many talk about.

Web 2.0

Since the internet gained popularity around the world in 1995, it was suddenly trusted as the solution to most problems faced by companies around the world. This made a lot of these Information Technology oriented companies to take a plunge into the internet by basing a lot of their work in relation to the internets utilities. This blind faith and trust came to sudden fall when the dotcom bubble burst in 2001 causing most of these firms to shutdown and rethink operations. This impact is what showed the world the downside of the internet for the first time with such a deep influence. This made many people conclude that the web was way over hyped and not at all a solution to business issues, even though bubbles and consequent shakeouts appear to be a common feature of all technological revolutions. But affected businesses did not understand this feature and trashed the internet. However, there were a few companies and websites that did survive this crash, and interestingly, all these companies had something or the other in common. The analysis of these common attributes is what led to the discovery of the term ‘Web 2.0’.
Wikipedia defines web 2.0 as a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online. In terms of chronological order of invention of technology, it may be second generation. It may also be second generation in terms of usage around many technologically developed countries around the world. However, in ELDC’s (Economically Lesser Developed Countries) like India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Brazil, the internet was not predominant in its initial stages (i.e. before the dotcom bubble burst) and only gained popularity after the rebirth of the internet. Now these countries may have the highest amount of investment in terms of the information technology but people of these areas are still getting used to the internet. Web 2.0 is infact the first generation of internet for most of the people here.
The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having the fallen, the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as "Web 2.0" might make sense? The conference agreed to this statement, announcing the birth of Web 2.0.