There has been an ongoing debate on what "Web 2.0" really is? The ground truth in my personal opinion that Web 2.0 is a jargon that is extremely difficult to define accurately. However, being one who is interested to explore the knowledges on what made up the great World Wide Web, extensive research was done on Web 2.0, particularly from Wikipedia. The knowledge gathered from understanding the studies done on Web 2.0 is in fact quite inconclusive, but yet I am able to derive some rough idea of what it really is.
But there seems to be a very basic understanding with regards to the meaning of Web 2.0 which encapsulate the use of a website and turning it into a social networking and the interconnectivity between users. The emphasis is really on networking using the website on the Internet as a platform. To name some examples, social networking sites like Facebook, Friendster and Myspace. The idea is for users of the Internet to make use of the interconnectivity provided by the Internet and the electronic gateways to connect to each other using applications to meet the common purposes like games, discussions, file sharings of website contents and so on.
According Tim O’Reilly, it was deliberated that Web 2.0 have four levels (Level-0, Level-1, Level-2 and Level-3). Each level describes applications usage whether these sites function during offline or online and how it connects people. For instant, level-2 application are websites that primarily deal with photograph sharing. It does not really promotes the interconnectivity between users on the Internet. The last level is the most apporiated described as the most "Web 2.0" orientated. The process not only enable users on the Internet to share website contents, person contents, exchange discussions and other interactions using the application in the particular platform. O’Reilly gave that examples of websites using level-3 applications are eBay, Del.icio.us and Adsense.
To a certain extend, I fully agree with O’Reilly deliberations on the descriptions of Web 2.0. But there seems to be a lack of a common standards on how a Web 2.0 oriented website should behaves. While I agree fully that Social Bookmarking websites like Del.icio.us does meet the basic understanding of Web 2.0 which is interconnectivity between users, the sharing of website contents (bookmarks) and the ability for users to deploy the use of RSS subscriptions which is a form of further offline sharing.
Personally, I opine that "Web 2.0" is actually a process for users all over the world to connect to one and another using the Internet and at the same time making friends while learning from them, gaining knowledge and information that you could not possibly learnt offline.
Leave Your Comments