The World Wide Web - Essay Example

? Web 2.0 The Internet is just a world passing around s in a room. - Jon Stewart With the dawn of the 21st century, technology and computershave started becoming an inherent part and parcel of a human being’s life. With a gradual ease for almost the entire population on the planet towards the use of computers and the internet, the World Wide Web has become a portal for the sharing of resources and information in collaboration with a number of application from all around the world. Web 2.0 is thus a consortium generated by users and created by people interested in helping the global community expand on their horizon of using the internet. The use of social networking sites, blogs, video sharing websites, information sharing websites, all form a very vital aspect of this Web 2.0. (What Is Web 2.0) Many academicians all over the world have started doing an in depth analysis on the concept of the Web 2.0 and have found that ‘gatewatching’ and ‘produsage’ have become the driving forces of this web generated collection of applications. These terms have been further explained within this paper with respect to other spheres like technological convergence, collective intelligence and democratization and how this has helped to further propagate the practice of making use of the Web 2.0. Gatewatching is basically a term used to refer to the process whereby which people tend to post different interesting stories and pieces of news all over the internet. This is all furnished from time to time on different websites and people can gain access to the same through search engines by typing in keywords. It is a very helpful and integral part of Web 2.0 because it has helped a large number of people in searching and finding information as per their needs with respect to reliable sources all over the internet. This is a practice that has been followed in the field of citizen journalism as well. It is also known as ‘gatekeeping’ news because anyone can post absolutely anything with respect to any topic of concern and that is why it has helped in creating a number of controversies all over the world as well. For example, in recent news, the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange was arrested for having leaked out vital information and news stories through such ways of citizen journalism; Wikileaks is a website whereby which news and stories are posted anonymously by reporters and people all over the world. Anyone can come ahead and submit information of importance to other people, and once it has been verified by the department at the website, it is published for the public in order to read and verify details regarding a certain topic at hand. (Gatewatching and Citizen Journalism) There are a number of communities and groups that carry out gatewatching as well, instead of individual people having to submit their information elsewhere on to different websites. They help to offer a much better perspective along with a forum of discussion from people all around the world as to whatever has been happening or whatever has been posted. Axel Bruns, along with two other of his co workers, began the Gatewatching blog where the website is run with the help of information that they receive from all over the world with respect to important events happening in Australia, and now recently, everywhere. They have also, through the website, tried to promote the concept of citizen journalism, by taking on the task of reporting important events taking place during the Australian elections from the late 2008 and onwards. Such websites are very informative and provide opinions with respect to whatever has been happening, for the benefit of the common people who might not be aware of what has been going on in the news in their surroundings. They help people formulate their own opinions and not get swayed by a certain stance on a certain subject of matter or interest. Thus, it does help a great in bringing about democracy within a country. In countries like China where the government will even take the required steps, like it has in the past, to ban certain websites from reaching its people, these websites are coming up in smaller numbers. They are like blogs, where people are assisted by putting forward their voice and opinions and helping others know where they stand in which circumstance. It is an excellent portal for people to share information with respect to current events and news pieces, and helps people to decide what they want for themselves. In the recent Egyptian upheaval, a number of students were part of the revolution and it was able to succeed because of their connection and association with the web 2.0 where they were able to post about current affairs in the country, updates about their success with the ongoing of the revolution, the status of the President and the needs and desires of the people. People were able to share information almost at the speed of light, and this transmission helped in a steady up gradation of the revolution as more and more people were able to read others’ opinions and formulate their own. This is how the revolution was also able to achieve a global status on a certain level. Also defined by Dr Alex Bruns, the term ‘produsage’ is another concept that has become widely accepted in terms of the Web 2.0. It is the way by which producers of content on the web are able to interact with their customers or consumers and provide them with all the information that they require for their research. All this is distributed through different networks and channels like online journals and newspapers and the producers are thus able to gain a mass audience through the Web 2.0 consortium to whom they can communicate all their thoughts and ideas to. Produsage is thus a very up and coming concept which is used by people all over the world in order to transmit and send across messages and information to other people. By understanding and looking at the concept of ‘gatewatching’ it goes hand in hand with the same because it also calls for greater democracy in any country or community. It is a process whereby which many people have been given the freedom to distribute their thoughts on a wider scale or range across the internet and they are able to gain a big audience as well. (Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond) According to the theory of public sphere, these concepts play a very important role in society today. This theory states that individuals have the ability to come together and form their own groups and societies in order to be able to share information and thoughts with each other freely in order to combat problems and discuss solutions for issues raging in their worlds. Thus, the Web 2.0 has become a very vital part of today’s technologically run world as it has helped in creating a public sphere on a virtual portal whereby which people can come together and share their thoughts with each other through the aspects of Produsage and gatewatching. It has become increasingly important for people to be able to come together with each other and shorten out the distances between them in terms of sharing ideals and ideologies. This has further helped in bettering governments all around the world as people have the power and ease to now go onto the Web 2.0 consortium and provide whatever expertise they have through their thoughts which can soon be turned into actions. Wikipedia is an excellent example of this entire process. It is a platform which has been formed in order to provide information to people at the click of a button. It has been formed by a group of people willing to share the information that they are able to collect from all the nooks and crannies in the world; it is not easy today to pass on and share information with each other without the help of the internet. (Welcome to Produsage.org) What would people do if they were living in different continents and had to share information? Mailing letters and parcels via post takes a long time and thus, steps in the Web 2.0. With most applications ranging to help people to get their work done faster, it is an excellent source of information at one’s fingertips. Wikipedia contains information about every event, person, place and thing ever invented or that has taken place on the Earth since times immemorial. It is one of the largest collections of information found online and can be searched easily through any search engine. One can sift through a wide expanse of information within a matter of minutes and be able to get whatever information they need; all this has been possible with the existence of produsage and gatewatching depicted through the use of this website. It is in use so much that today, people have even begun using the name of the website as a verb which means ‘to look for information.’ Democratization on internet has taken a new shape since the coming of Web 2.0. It has been given a whole new meaning, and it is imperative for us to understand what we really mean by democratization of internet. Since the turn of 20th century, Web 2.0 has taken a new initiative with regard to gatewatching, which basically means sharing ideas on the internet. Democratization of knowledge in reference to gatewatching has taken a new toll in Wikipedia. Democratization of knowledge means sharing of knowledge among a large group of people for the perusal of any individual who has access to the open source system. Wikipedia on Web 2.0 is an open source information portal where any person who has access to this system can display information for the larger public to view the same information. Wikipedia has contributed largely to the democratization of knowledge on the internet, by making available information on any aspect of information free of cost to the public by just a click of a button. “Professionals are no longer needed for the bare purpose of the mass distribution of information and the shaping of opinion” This is the view of the co-founder of Wikipedia Larry Sanger, stating in his article that to spread information on a large scale portal we don’t need the input of skilled professionals anymore, where such information is documented by individuals who have access to this information by other means, and Wikipedia is a perfect example of all these individuals coming together and projecting information on a mass portal available for anyone’s perusal. Moving on to Collective Intelligence, let us start with the basic definition of collective intelligence. (Edge) Collective Intelligence in terms of sociological aspects may be defined as the collaboration of the intelligence and ideas of many individuals thus evolving the thoughts into a shared portal of intelligence. Applying this definition to internet, the inference amounts to the creation of a shared network of intelligence from the collaboration and competition of various intelligence networks in a consensus decision making over the internet. With the growth of Wikipedia, collective intelligence has taken a new shape altogether. Wikipedia being an access portal of information has culminated into a stream of thought reaching across diversified groups of individuals thus forming in a tool of intelligence operating at an extremely high level of acumen. The ability of Web 2.0 to store and then retrieve information, over shared databases at any point of time makes it a handy tool for harboring collective intelligence. Citizen journalism is the concept of the members of the general public playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, and analyzing information and news to the people at large. This concept has grown and is being used by a lot of TV channels to promote their news by motivating individuals to report any happenings around their place of residence. Web 2.0 has caught up big time with this concept, and today this same concept is applied to news websites where individuals have been posting news and other information specific to their location and neighborhood. Wikipedia is a prime example of citizen journalism. The core concept of Wikipedia lies in the fact that any one person can go and update, change or process the information given on the website regarding a topic or any thought process related to the existence of occurrence in humanity. Now, with this user interface a open software coding, it is implied that Wikipedia is nothing but a large portal or an electronic warehouse of ideas collaborating and developing through the means of citizen journalism. Gatewatching has contributed enormously to this phenomenon, by this virtue people have been able to transfer information to the portal and through the same procedure they have been able to extract information as well. Amazon.com has also been one of the highlights of the Produsage effect with regard to citizen journalism. With a large number of products available on the website, and advertisements to go along with it, Produsage has taken a new toll through the means of this website. Web 2.0 has been a successful lead for technological convergence. Technological convergence is the concept where different technological systems evolve into performing similar tasks. One of the prime examples of this would be when voice, video and data synergize to perform a common task. Web 2.0 has been able to develop this idea into a further developed tool. In the earlier days, people used to have newspapers to read information, radio to listen to music and Television to watch movies. This has been changed completely by the Web 2.0 applications. Now people can watch and stream videos while at the same time read news on the same website, for example Yahoo.com, where all the three mediums of technology are available. Not only this much, people can also download games, listen to music or watch any news stream on the website. Technological convergence has taken place on the Internet big time, and therefore it is the prime example of such phenomenon happening in the world. Through various means of media and other technologies, people have been able to streamline their pool of information to a restricted base which covers all the aspects of information and technology. Works Cited What Is Web 2.0 - O'Reilly Media. 2011. What Is Web 2.0 - O'Reilly Media. [ONLINE] Available at: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html. [Accessed 24 May 2011] Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage | Produsage.org. 2011. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage | Produsage.org. [ONLINE] Available at: http://produsage.org/book. [Accessed 25 May 2011]. Edge: Who says we know: on the new politics of knowledge By Larry Sanger. 2011. Edge: WHO SAYS WE KNOW: ON THE NEW POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE By Larry Sanger. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/sanger07/sanger07_index.html. [Accessed 25 May 2011]. Welcome to Produsage.org | Produsage.org. 2011. Welcome to Produsage.org | Produsage.org. [ONLINE] Available at: http://produsage.org/. [Accessed 25 May 2011] Gatewatching and Citizen Journalism | Snurblog. 2011. Gatewatching and Citizen Journalism | Snurblog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://snurb.info/citizenjournalism. [Accessed 25 May 2011] Read More