Web 2.0. Who is working for who?

I recently attended a lecture at university on ‘Web 2.0’. This was a word that I had heard bouncing around a few times, but never truly understood the meaning and concept behind it. From the lecture I formed my own brief conclusion of what exactly Web 2.0 is. It is an enhancement of the original world wide web. Before the introduction of Web 2.0, Web 1.0 as it was known was the first real set of sites with interactive facilities. Web 2.0 is a conglomerate of websites such as; Facebook, You Tube and E-bay, which all allow the user to input and take control of their own information in a more flexible way. All of the Web 2.0 sites are maintained mostly by the user, take for instance Wikipedia. Wikipedia is simply a database which is controlled by anyone who wishes to input information to that database. It can be changed and the content replaced by other users, therefore making it extremely interactive.

The birth of Web 2.0 has made communication and sharing a much more enjoyable, easy experience. When looking at a site such as You Tube (which once again is a database where users can store and control content and information) it is clear to see how easy information sharing has become with the creation of Web 2.0. For those of you that are not familiar with You Tube, it is simply a website in which users can post videos and share them on a world wide scale. Taking the fact that the whole of the content on the website is owned by the individual that posts, you can see why You Tube is such a phenomenon. Like many of the websites contained in Web 2.0 the internet sites often do not own anything. The databases are completely updated by the user, thereby providing user generated content available on a world wide scale. It would seem that no longer does the internet have to slave over our individual needs, as the human population is now able to cater for them selves with the ever growing interactivity of Web 2.0.

However, what may seem as an advantage to many is seen as the complete opposite by other individuals. Andrew Keen is one of those individuals. In a blog entry he gave us his opinion of Web 2.0 “Truth and trust are the whipping boys of the Web2.0 revolution”. I can personally emphasise with Andrew on this. It would seem the simple design of Web 2.0 allows for the creators of the site to do relatively little work, but still reap the huge benefits from the user generated content. This seems unfair as the users of the site rarely gain any benefits from their input, other than the satisfaction of having more interactive content.

In my own opinion I feel the colossal rising of Web 2.0 has allowed for a massively improved overall internet experience. The fact that the owners of such sites are doing relatively no work in comparison to the users, isn’t the most significant point. The fact that the creation of these sites allow users such a variety in interactivity, thus enhancing the users experience.