[Air-l] how to pin down web 2.0

[Neil Randall]

> Again, my greatest concern is that it doesn't mean all that much,
while conflating far too much. Lane's post notwithstanding, Web 2.0
seems to be little more than a shortened way of saying something about
the Web as it is used today. In other words, Web 2.0 is the Web: why
proliferate terms in an area where we already have a surfeit?

I would agree with this. Web 2.0 simply represents an evolutionary step in
the use of the Web, one in which (a) the Web becomes a platform for
applications that once resided solely on local PCs or LANs (Google Apps,
etc.), and (b) the Web becomes a file and message store and display platform
for anyone who wants to participate (Facebook et al). These are significant
changes from the Web of the late 90s, but the capabilities were largely
there from the beginning. In fact, in some important respects Web 2.0 is a
return to Tim Berners-Lee's original conception, when he saw Web pages as
things to be edited and added to by anyone who visited them.

Neil Randall