Web 2.0 - Making WWW more democratic

Deepak Kumar Mohanty

New Delhi

Thu, 02 Aug 2007: 

Aug 02: Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) have really changed our whole notion of communication in the past decade and a half. New technological innovation terms of scientific and even socio-cultural evolution are taking place in light of these changing trends.

So the WWW is today also in a metamorphic stage with the new concept of Web 2.0 that is today attracting everybody’s attention.

Web 2.0 is a technological evolution that has brought revolutionary changes the way we communicate, collect and disseminate information around the world. Though the term seems a bit confusing but we all know and use the technology unknowingly. Today it has become part of our daily life as we connect to Internet to find something new in the field of knowledge, information and entertainment.

Without making this more confusing let’s have a small example that will automatically introduce you to the Web 2.0. Wiki yes we all know about the popular information sharing site Wikipedia running as a free content encyclopedia project. Wiki is a place where one can collect information almost about any topic. However, the most important aspect that differentiates it from the earlier encyclopedias is its democratic features.

Wikis or any social networking sites provide platform not only to collect information but also to create, modify, share information timely as per your knowledge and others. That means it offers a button to participate in content writing and sharing through the use of Internet.

So as a technology there is not much change and it only homes all those technological concepts that turn the use of web more user friendly. Today one can find the basic concept of Web 2.0 in almost all single websites in terms of RSS feed, Feedback, Reader’s Forum, Blogs, Pod casts that are the features of an open web environment.

Web 2.0 is an open communication by decentralizing the authority of information control and share. Now websites are offering freedom to create, share and reuse the content.

Today almost all popular websites including Google, Orkut, MySpace, YouTube, Wikis, Flickr, Facebook are based on this single concept of information sharing. You Tube now owned by Google is one of the most rated video sharing sites where you can find content regarding movies, songs, news, sports, and even you can upload your own video simply following some simple steps.

In the end what really Web 2.0 is doing is making a team-work between user and developer. Users are now more open to publish the information which they want to share on the net with other users free of cost. However, there are two things that are now in concern is the authenticity of information though it can be managed with dedicated users. The other is the socio-cultural implication that is being faced by some of the popular social networking websites. These issues are yet to be addressed by the new technology.