Web 20 Technologies - Essay Example

WEB 2.0 Number: Lecturer: Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is a term that is used to refer to websites that operate on technologies that are beyond the conventional static pages. The technology was introduced in the year 2004. The term originates from a software industry where software versions are labelled in incremental version (OReilly, 2005). It is important to note that the term does not refer to a new version of the web but represents a series of technological improvements. The technology offers a new level of user interaction in the web that was not experienced before. The technology has created more dynamic and user interactive websites that have resulted in online communities and made communication and sharing of information more easy (Paul, 2007). Essentially, Web 2.0 involves continuous and cumulative changes that are made on the web pages how they are developed and used. The Web 2.0 technology site eliminates the tradition of websites where the users are limited to passive viewing and limited or no interaction (Paul, 2007). It allows users to interact and communicate with each other by providing an active and interactive platform. The Web 2.0 provides services that enable us to carry out daily activities on the internet including upload of videos on You tube, sharing pictures and videos in Facebook, Flicker among others (OReilly, 2005). Web 2.0 has several features that have enabled it to be effectively used for interactive and communicative purposes. These include; Folksonomy which is free and independent classification of information that allows users to find information and collectively classify information. This is sometimes referred to as tagging. It also provides a platform for rich user experience through content that is dynamic and responsive to user input. Through review, evaluation and commenting, information can easily flow between the site owner and the user. Additionally, the user can easily participate through adding content as is in crowdsourcing. Another feature is the dispersion through content delivery using multiple channels such as permalinks and file sharing (OReilly, 2005). In addition to the mentioned features, Web 2.0 has four defining features that is unique to this technology. This features include user participation, real time user control, user generated content and interactivity. These features are heavily supported by technologies and service such as Cloud computing, RSS, software Mashups and Apps, social networks, Blogs and Wikis (Paul, 2007). It is through these technologies and services that Web 2.0 can be used in the management of enterprises, businesses and organizations. The technologies are used for different purposes in management. These technologies are discussed below: a) Software Mashups and Apps. Software mashups and applications are web pages and applications that basically integrate complementary elements from two or more sources. The technology involves aggregation and recombination which is pulling together data and information from different sources to create a new service. These services and technologies are normally developed using Ajax development approach (Margaret, 2006). This is an important service for business advertising and provision of information to the public in a more interactive and user friendly way. This service is characterised by more user-defined services and contents. Some of the websites that have been created from this technology include flash earth which is a zoom able mash up of both Google maps and Microsoft’s virtual Earth (Margaret, 2006).The technology has been effectively used in several businesses including management of rental and real estate properties. This service has further created a platform where users can effectively interact together in the internet through social networks and online communities. The communication among users happens through the user defined ways and preference. With this technology and service businesses have effectively improved their online presence and marketing thus improving activities in the organization (Margaret, 2006). b) Wikis Wikis are collaborative websites where anybody who is among the community of users can edit or contribute to. Wikis have several characteristics; they can be open to the global audience, restricted to a selected network or community of users. They can cover a specific subject area or topic. It also has a history function that allows one to restore previous versions. This service makes it very easy to search for information and data that is text or multimedia (OReilly, 2005). Wikis have been identified as the best tools and technology for businesses due to its effective sharing, provision and submission of information capabilities. The technology has been used by the national Cyber Security Centre to provide interactive and real-time monitoring against cyber-attacks. The technology could be used effectively to provide an interactive platform for a business where users can post edit and manipulate data and information that could be substantially useful for the business and decision making. Additionally, the technology is more useful for group working due to its extreme flexibility, ease of use and open access capabilities (OReilly, 2005). c) Blogs A blog is a term that is used to refer to a personal website that has a chronology of entries. The term is a contraction of two words Web and Log (Paul, 2007). The technology always provides information on a particular topic, issue or event. It is often maintained and updated by one person or sometimes by a small group of individuals and contributors. The information in the blog is updated by the owners of the blog but other users can comment and reply to comments in the blog on a particular topic. They are mainly text but they can also be in images, photos sounds or videos. The technology is termed as the backbone for the web 2.0’s democratic spirit. In a blog the posts are usually tagged with one or two keywords, this allows the post to be filed once it gets old (Paul, 2007). This is then stored into a standard theme based system. Blogging has an important aspect of linking which allows immediacy and also promotes the referencing and retrieval of information stored in different blogs. Some of the inherent features in a blog include a permalink that is generated by a blogging system and links to a particular blog but does not guarantee the contents of the blog (Paul, 2007). A trackback which allows the connection between two bloggers and keeps track of activities of these two bloggers providing communication with each other. And a blog roll which is similar to a bookmark or favourites for the blogs that a blogger likes. d) RSS and syndication Real Simple Syndication (RSS ) is a protocol enabling users to receive feeds and information from their favourite websites whenever there is an update. This is a collection of formats that allows the users to locate updates to the contents of an RSS-enabled websites, podcasts and blogs without visiting the sites (Paul, 2007). The information from these websites are summarised into an RSS format including synopsis, story title and the originating website’s name. This flow of content is received by the user is referred to as an RSS feed. To access and use a feed, the user must install software called a feed reader or aggregator into the computer. The user then subscribes to the desired feeds. This tool makes business marketing easier. RSS is technically an XML based data format for websites to exchange files which contain publishing information and summaries of site contents (OReilly, 2005). The technology is now widely used for blog content syndication. Most sites and blogs create, display and publish small RSS feeds that allow quick and easy registration process. e) Podcasts Podcasts are audio recordings of interviews, lectures talks that can be played on audio devices. Podcasts are made by creating an MP3 format audio file which is uploaded to a host server then using RSS to make it known globally. Distribution of a podcast is not as hard as creation of the podcast. The users subscribe to an RSS feed that distributes the podcast to the listeners (OReilly, 2005). f) Social Networking A social network is a platform that allows users to create profiles which can be shared by other people with the same interest. The profiles can also be public and can be viewed by anyone. One can share pictures, videos, text, images and many more through the social network. It offers an interaction platform where one can interact with a wide range of people from anywhere in the world. Some of the major social networks include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn among others (Paul, 2007). This technology has greatly been adopted by many institutions and it is used for internal communication, marketing and establishing business and professional connections in the internet (Paul, 2007). The technology has defined how people interact online, how organisations and businesses relate with their customers and clients, how providers of goods and services learn about their customers and their clients, how advertisers reach potential customers (Paul, 2007). Web 2.0 technologies are run based on big ideas that have been mentioned earlier. These ideas are the backbone for the concept of Web 2.0 technology. These ideas include: Individual production and user generated content. Web 2.0 technologies are characterised by a high percentage of user generated content that is generated by individuals and posted through the internet and shared with friends and the online community. These include posts in blogs, wikis and social media, videos and images in social media, wikis, blogs and podcasts. Unlike in the past, generation and production of content can easily be produced and distributed by individuals (Bebensee, Helms, & Spruit, 2012). Harness the power of the crowd Crowd sourcing is a common idea for the Web 2.0 technologies. Crowd sourcing is used to gather ideas from the online community and the social media fraternatiy. The ideas are collected through the use of wikis, blogs and social media (Stephen, 2008). Data on an epic scale The current business environment is characterised by immense increase in the amount of data and the use of this data. For this reason, technologies that are efficient in the management of and information are necessary. Most organizations including Google, Amazon, Ebay have adopted increased analysis of data. This is done by collecting data on users and consumers over the internet, this is then analysed to come up with the consumer demands and trends in order to effectively satisfy them (Paul, 2007). Architecture of participation. Applications are designed with user participation and use in mind. In this idea the architecture of an application is designed with the ability to improve with constant use. This means that the application will keep on improving based on the nature of use by the consumers. A good example is the Google search application (Paul, 2007). The ideas and technologies in the Web 2.0 have had great impacts in the business management and productivity. Specifically, the technology has great impact in the following areas: Knowledge management (KM) Web 2.0 technologies have impact in the knowledge management in an organisation. The technology makes it possible to share knowledge, retrieve knowledge, organize knowledge and leverage knowledge. Knowledge management is slowly becoming a natural result from the use of blogs, wikis, podcasts and RSS filters. Web 2.0 is making Knowledge and management in organizations such as retail industries and consulting industries more easy and feasible unlike in the past. However internally focused organizations are still reluctant in adoption of web 2.0 and Knowledge management due to privacy, security and intellectual property issues (Bebensee, Helms, & Spruit, 2012). Rapid Application Development (RAD) Web 2.0 technologies enable fast modification, development, and support of applications and improvement of requirements modelling. Web 2.0 technologies such as Mashup and other related technologies are replacing the traditional rapid Application development technology. More progress in RAD will be made with the increased components and application programming interfaces and widgets are being published. Customer Relationship Management Web 2.0 technologies is greatly used in this area due to its influence on the ability to effectively mine customer data, reach more customers effectively, solicit customer insights and concerns and effectively communicate with the customers. The CRM applications are always slow in absorbing the extensible abilities of the Web 2.0 technologies. However the Customer Relationship Management aspect of any organisation and business stands to gain more from the Web 2.0 technology than any other (Stephen, 2008). Collaboration and communication. The technology facilitates the coordination of discussions, synchronization of projects and tasks reach to more people faster and audit communication streams. Additionally, the technology inherent in Web 2.0 allows companies to try out applications and at the same time testing their impact on infrastructure, security and intellectual property (Stephen, 2008). Training Web 2.0 technologies supports traditional training in an organization, enables modification and evolution of training material, enables coding and distribution of training content, and support asynchronous training. Due to these advantages many companies are now using blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS filters for education and training. The relatively low cost, ease of use and participatory nature of these applications has made it more appealing to many organizations and institutions (Stephen, 2008). In addition to the Web 2.0 technologies management can also be enhanced by use of technologies such as Evernote. Evernote is a suite of software applications and services that are designed for note taking and archiving (Evernote, 2014). The software is designed to support a variety of operating systems including iOS, OSX, android, Windows Phone, Microsoft Windows, Black Berry and Web OS. The technology also supports online backup and synchronization services. The note taking can be in form of text, webpages and excerpts, photograph handwritten notes, voice memo (Evernote, 2014). The notes could have attachments which could be sorted, tagged, edited, annotated, searched and even exported as a notebook. This technology is effective in offices for passing information and instructions among team members or even management instructions to employees (Evernote, 2014). Evernote has an application called Skitch that is an editing and sharing utility that was originally designed for OSX operating system. It allows a user to change the appearance of an image by adding text and shapes and sharing it online. It also allows the images to be exported to other image formats. The technology is now offered free of charge for iOS, OS X, Windows 8 and Android platforms (Evernote, 2014). Penultimate is one of Evernote’s products that is easy to use for handwriting app designed for iPad. It gives the user the fun and natural experience of writing on paper. With the inherent flexibility the application allow one to lose the paper and keep the handwriting (Evernote, 2014).Evernote clearly makes blogs and wikis posts to be more clear and presentable and allows them to be read and updated anywhere with Evernote (Evernote, 2014). Evernote Web clipper allows the user to save any text, images links and phrases that is of interest to them online in one location for easy access (Evernote, 2014). Reference Bebensee, T., Helms, R., & Spruit, M. (2012). Exploring the Impact of Web 2.0 on Knowledge Management. In B. I, & D. A, Knowledge Management 2.0: Organizational Models and Enterprise Strategies (pp. 17-34). PA: Hershey. Evernote. (2014). The evernote family of Products. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from Evernote.com: https://evernote.com/products/ Margaret, R. (2006, March). What is Mash-up. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from whatis.Techtarget.com: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/mash-up OReilly, T. (2005, September 30). What Is Web 2.0:Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from Oreilly.com: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html Paul, A. (2007). What is Web 2.0. JISC. Stephen, A. (2008). Impact of Web 2.0 Technologies. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from Liquidhub.com: http://www.liquidhub.com/docs/Impact_of_Web_2_technologies.pdf Read More