When the term Web 2.0 first emerged, many businesses wondered what it meant for their business, and whether it was relevant. This presentation outlines thinking done while at MetaDesign, and how Web 2.0 was relevant to clients.

1. Web2.0: Second coming or Sound and Fury?
20 April 2006

2. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
-- MacBeth V.v.

3. 3
Agenda
> Web2.0: The Sound and the Fury
> Trends, components and design patterns
> Examples of Web2.0 applications
> Implications
> Summary and resources

5. 5
[wink]

6. 6
Web2.0: Miscellaneous definitions
> “The Web as Platform”
– Tim O’Reilly
> “The Web as Platform for __________”
– Richard McManus
> “Web2.0 means using the Web the way it’s meant to be used. The
‘trends’ we’re seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the
Web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it
during the Bubble.”
– Paul Graham
> “Web2.0 is where [the seeds of new and interesting technologies]
take root in the soil of business.”
– John Battelle

7. 7
Web2.0: Miscellaneous definitions (cont’d)
> “Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard
boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0
as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable
solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those
principles, at a varying distance from that core.”
– Tim O’Reilly
> “Web2.0 is a marker of the reinvigoration of competition more than
technology.”
– Danah Boyd

8. 8
Clear as an unmuddied lake, me brother...

9. 9
Even better (from Tim O’Reilly)

10. 10
Buzzwords (New economy bull**** generator 2.0)
> Services and Applications
> Perpetual Beta
> Mashup; remixability; remix culture
> Read-write Web
> Tagging; folksonomies; tagclouds
> The Long Tail
> AJAX
> RSS; syndication; feeds; feed aggregators
> Social networking; YASNS
> Open _______ (open-source, open APIs, open standards)

11. 11
Anatomy of a buzzword

12. Can we simplify things?

13. 13
Web2.0 lies at the crossroads of many trends

14. 14
Web2.0 might be...*
> about Web applications and services
> supported by a collection of (previously existing) technologies
> a collective feeling that something is changing and growing in how
the Internet is used
> an indicator of broader social and business trends
> surrounded by a lot of hype
> obsessive navel-gazing by a small group of people
> consistent with trends in previous technological innovations
> a stepping stone
* in my opinion

15. 15
Web2.0 is NOT...
> the second coming
> strictly a matter of technology
> meaningful in the sense of software version numbers
> something every company absolutely has to pick up and use
> the future of the Web
> a clearly defined service offering or application “space”

16. 16
10 Issues facing Web2.0 Today (from Dion Hinchcliffe)
> Excessive hype
> Lack of a simple definition
> Aging poster children
> Needing a permaconnection
> AJAX as the official Web2.0 experience
> Excessive attention on the technology
> Really bad adherents
> Blogging instead of doing
> Not facing hard truths
> Adopting the lightweight creation model

17. Trends, components
and design patterns

18. 18
Acronyms, abbreviations and Web2.0
> AJAX: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (1997)
> RSS and Atom: Syndication technologies (1998 + 2004)
> XML: Extensible Markup Language (1996)
> XHTML + CSS: Web markup and style (2000 + 1996)
> PHP: PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (1994) (open-source)
> MySQL: Database system (1995) (open-source)
> Apache: Web server (1995) (open-source)
> Platforms: Rails, Laszlo, Struts, ... (200x) (open-source)

19. 19
Miscellaneous Tools and Web2.0
> Blogs
> Wikis
> P2P networks and protocols
> Social Networking infrastructures

20. 20
Infrastructure and Web2.0
> Telecommunication network growth
> Broad availability of high-speed Internet connections
> Cheap and ubiquitous Web hosting
> Cheap storage

21. 21
Content and Web2.0
> User-generated content adds value (sometimes)
> Power shift occurs
> Democracy in content-creation, classification and rating processes
> Link network acts as both filter and firehose
> Reputation systems gain importance

22. 22
Design Evolution and Web2.0
> User-centered design is key
> IA and information design mature
> Perpetual beta and design revisionism
> Simplicity is key for many services

23. 23
Human social behaviors
> Web mirrors real-world social complexity
> Social networks writ digital
> Rise of topic-based microcommunities
> Reputation systems and trust matter
From TechCrunch 04.20.06

24. 24
Business and Web2.0
> Climate of innovation and excitement
> Advertising works
> Services services services
> Niche markets are viable and desirable

25. 25
Economics and Web2.0
> Bubble2.0? Not really
> No IPOs
> Acquisition strategies common
> Small, critical service offerings (Web of Applications)

26. Folksonomies:
Example by deconstruction

27. 27
Folksonomy: Taxonomy for the Masses
> “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”
– Eric Raymond, paraphrasing Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux
> Taxonomy = Directories (Web1.0)
> Folksonomy = Tags or Keywords (Web2.0)

28. 28
Folksonomy and Web2.0
> Democracy: User-generated classification
> Community: Derive power from the network (Metcalfe’s Law)
> Content: Serendipity and massive linkage
> Technology: Feeds for tags

29. 29
But is it useful? The debate rages on...
> Folksonomists: “the death of taxonomy” (Tim O’Reilly), “ontology is
overrated” (Clay Shirky)
> Others: “hyperbole” and “apophenia” (Peter Morville)
> Exemplifies a broader Web2.0 debate,

30. Examples of
Web2.0 applications

31. 31
Wikipedia: Poster child of the Read-Write Web

32. 32
Netflix: AJAX

33. 33
Gmail: More AJAX

34. 34
busmonster.com: Did I mention AJAX?

35. 35
del.icio.us: Bookmarks + folksonomies

36. 36
Flickr: Photos and folksonomies

37. 37
Ning: Roll-your own ... and folksonomies

38. 38
digg: Users as editors

39. 39
reddit: Embedded ranking systems + “reputation”

40. 40
Amazon: Six degrees of reputation
(See “Six degrees of reputation: the use and abuse of online recommendation systems” (Shay and
Finch))

41. 41
Amazon: A9 - content on steroids

42. 42
Netvibes: AJAX MyYahoo without ads

43. 43
popurls.com: for information junkies...

44. Implications for Web design

45. 45
Implications for Web design
> Web experience design is changing
> Shift away from page-based interaction models is significant
> We may need new approaches to how we review and present our
work to clients
> We may need to rethink the design process for some projects (i.e.,
potentially explore XP-style rapid, iterative development cycles
with interactive prototyping)

46. 46
Implications for Web design (cont’d)
> Impact will be felt in many different areas
> Strategy: Understanding of trends and how they impact the content, services, and
products delivered by companies
> Interaction design: Evolution of Web interaction models; new ways of wireframing?
New ways of presenting interaction approaches? Greater need for understanding of
technology
> Editorial: Vocabulary for services and tools; Ability to articulate how the Brave New
Web World enhances customer experiences; Insight into broader universe of user-
generated content (and its pitfalls)
> Graphic design: Trend (push?) in many sectors towards highly simplified visual designs
focused on high information density, minimal graphic elements
> Technology: Greater demands on developers; impact on testing; cross-platform
implementation challenges

47. 47
Implications for Identity design and Brand building
> No direct implications for the visual expression of brand identity
> Large implications for how companies interact with their
consumers (e.g., business models for content and services)
> Could lead to the downfall of many traditional business models
(e.g., packaged software for some products)
> We need to think through the implications of “Web2.0” for our
clients – before they do

48. Broader implications

49. 49
Roadkill on the Web2.0 megahighway

50. 50
Oh, what a tangled Web we’ve woven!
> Are we burying ourselves in complexity?
> We can’t filter the infoverse without our technologies
> Whose truth is it, anyway?
> Things are dynamic, but are they durable?
> Emergent properties are still hidden

51. Summary and resources

52. 52
Summary
> Web2.0 is a concept, not a concrete thing
> Avoid the term (if you can); avoid the hype
> Trends cross many different domains
> Deep implications for user-centered design, usability, and design
processes

53. 53
Resources
> A few starting points:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2005/09/05/why_web20_matte.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
http://web2.wsj2.com/
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2005/10/the_amorality_o.php