Web and Social Life, Web, and Education, Web and Health Care, Web and Government, Web and Business - Case Study Example

Web Changes Life By Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Web and Social life 5 Web and Education 6 Web and Health Care 7 Web and Government 8 Web and Business 9 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 12 Introduction With the rapid advancements in technology, the majority of people today can barely imagine their life without the internet. And the series of advancements in the web, involves three stages of its growth. The first stage is web 1.0, which was basically accessing information and getting on the net. Web 2.0 contributes in connecting people through internet and focuses on interaction with user, and developing social networks. The latest stage is web 3.0 which have just started. (Umesha Naik et al., 2008) Web 1.0’s contributions include sharing of information such as a small number of pages created by writers that were intended to be read by a large number of readers. It enabled readers to access the information by going directly to the source. In this way Web 1.0 is a fundamentally system of interlinked, hypertext documents that are accessed via the Internet. It didn’t allow the users to interact hence they were not be able to communicate and exchange their information with each other. (Umesha Naik et al. 2008, Dr Mike Evans, 2006) Web 2.0 enhances web 1.0 by developing the user interfaces for previously developed web applications providing a user with a way to interact. Web 2.0 focuses on the use of network capabilities and the database, applications that provide users with online businesses, health care, governance, social networking education, and the applications that work together with each other to form a broader computing platform. (John Musser, 2006) Web 3.0 involves the realization of artificial intelligence technologies, the Semantic web, and 3D web. It focuses on the back end development and creation of high-quality services by re-using web 2.0 technologies as an enabling platform. (Umesha Naik et al. 2008) Web and Social life The advancements in web have focused on providing the users with a platform for the collection of information and its publication, a place for interaction, dialogue and discussion, and a venue for lobbying and fundraising through a new concept called e-society. Other than using the Internet as a tool for technical purpose, a number of organizations have promoted Internet as a tool for establishing a digital society. (Brett Rolfe) Web has provided its user with a new way to collaborate with each other, called social networking. Web 2.0 has made it possible to keep the users, in interaction with each other through social networking and collaborative interactions. The new mechanisms of information exchange in Web 2.0 support the possibility of open collaboration for all individual users. Through e- society users can create digital content, contribute personal experience, and exchange their opinions with others. The notion of User Generated Content (UGC) has been extensively implemented in e-societies e.g. blog and wiki. UGC basically uses the social networking to support the centrality of participants, and the information distribution to online social communities. Web 2.0 considers user’s contributions as important constituent of e-society and for performing collective activities. (Yaun-Chu Hwang et al., 2009) In order to further enhance this race, web 3.0 is focusing on the involvement of context information (social behaviors) in collaborations between users through web. It will support the establishment of a digital society in which a user’s current contributions will bring some benefit for the user and will make him stay for long time on the community and in the future it will support the development of healthy community. (Yaun-Chu Hwang et al., 2009) Web and Education Education through web or e- learning is, as any other web application, has the important constituents content, services and users. An e-learning site is a virtual platform that is the combination of these three constituents of an e-learning environment, it have no need to exist in time or in space, but virtually. E-learning facilitates the learners with the possibility to learn anytime and anywhere, whatever they need and when they need it. (Julia Minguillon) The first form of web, web 1.0, which was developed in the mid ‘90s, provided a great facility to access the information resources. This capability of, “Open educational Resources”, is the fundamental contribution that web 1.0 had to the education. Web 2.0 that realized the idea proposed by web 1.0 in the recent years. For this purpose, online professional learning communities have been developed for learners that provide opportunities for users to take advantage of the strengths of Web 2.0 tools to get involved in on-demand learning. The users/learners can access a network of relevant professionals with common interests, and, often, supports to arrange an online lecture. This feature has been supported by a lot of virtual universities across the world. By supporting the education in this way, web 2.0 provides users with the chances of collaborative learning, development of collective understandings of topics of interest, and opportunities for dialogue with professionals in the relevant field from all over the world. Further, such kind of education supports interest-driven participation rooted in discipline-specific knowledge. (Ed Coughlin et al., 2009, Aristides Th. Vagelatos et al., 2010) In traditional e-learning system role of student is limited to just only the content consumer, where he/she plays no part in the creation of content. For a successful learning process, the interaction between teachers and learners is required at every stage. For this purpose, web 2.0 provides tools for e-learning that may allow Students to discuss the course and its contents and interact with teachers. Also, Learners have the choice of deciding and selecting what is most useful to them. (Rupesh Kumar A., 2009) Web and Health Care Due to the recent advancements in web, web communities for health purposes have become very popular, and the usage of such communities is increasing day by day. Web based health communities are of different types, some of which are dedicated for the patients of mental conditions, while others having particular focus on physical issues. There are also web communities for preventive health care, such as for people who are addicted to e.g. heroine and need to change their habits in order to diminish the risk of getting severe illnesses later. In this way web has also been serving in the field of health care to help its user by providing them with a platform where they can get the better guidance for health related issues.(Asa Smedberg, 2010) Web 1.0 contributed in health care by providing the users with the access to relevant information. But web 2.0 has provided a platform where the idea of e-health care is realized. It supports the development of small specialized applications offering services that other applications can easily use. These services may be implementing some specialized algorithms which store medical images, providing specialized tools for image processing, image annotations, storing measurements, maintaining laboratory values and vital signs etc. Besides these specific services, other services such as scheduling capabilities and reminders can be provided using online calendars that may help to schedule the user’s visit to health care and medication intake. Web 2.0 supports these services to be utilized by existing or new e-health applications in several areas such as tele-health and tele-consultation applications or medical record systems. (George I. Krakalis et al.) (Brian G. Danaher et al., 2006) have carried out a research on web based health care. They have examined initial patterns of several measures of user’s experience with ChewFree.com which is a Web-based program for smokeless tobacco cessation. Web and Government Web based governance or e-government is enabled by an organization through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to support or redefine its current or future interactions and relations with its stake-holders. Some of these uses, particularly those uses, involving the web 2.0, have more been thought as an enabler of important changes in the way governments carry on their activities. (Johan Van Wamelen et al., 2008, batlle et al.) According to (Johan Van Wamelen et al., 2008)Web 2.0 enables the development of e-government through different stages. First stage is presence stage which involves the development of a simple information providing Web site of a inactive nature, which act as brochure. Next, interaction stage comes which suggests simple interactions between government and citizens (G2C), government to business (G2B), or government agency to government agency (G2G). Interaction stage Web sites provides the facility of e-mail contact that generates the interaction between aforementioned entities. The transaction stage enables online payments for legal dues such as paying for license renewals online and paying taxes or fees. The last and most important stage is transformation stage, which is most closely synchronized with the core methodology of governance, it involves a re-structuring of government functions as to conceived and organize them electronically through web. The objective is enable a flawless flow of information and joint decision making between. At its higher level, E-Government may potentially restructure, merge, or eliminate existing agencies and substitute them with virtual organizations. According to (Mohamad Taghi Isaai et al., 2009), advancements in web based technology have also provided us with a way to conduct digital elections. Because of its requirements and impacts on both government and society, this will be proved as a great step towards setting up a capable e-government. Web and Business After the invention of web based technologies and specifically web 2.0, a trend of shifting the businesses on web space using modern web-based services, has been observed. This trend has gained huge recognition in the marketplace e.g. Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. Similarly, some of the leaders in this domain such as eBay, Amazon and Google etc., have launched themselves as powerhouses in their particular industries, and web have enabled them to grow well beyond their original span of business. If we take a look at the separately, we may observe that these companies doesn’t too many traits in common; but if we think about them as a whole, we may find that these companies share a number of business model and use of technology traits that are intriguing. All these companies have exploited the power of the web 2.0 in their businesses to build rich and important user experiences, allowing people to effortlessly trace and work together with others of alike interest, allowing the speedy and simple creation of content, collecting, storing and controlling large amounts of information to create value, hence serving the customers in a better way and gaining competitive advantage. (Jim Petrassi, 2008) It is necessary to understand for modern businesses that have been developed as a result of speedy adoption of internet and the invention of Web 2.0 technologies and techniques, that how Web 2.0 can be utilized, applied, and used to create new ways of profiting from the ever changing market place. Even though a lot of e-companies are adapting their working style to this new tradition and leading business into this new atmosphere, to become an e- market leader, companies need to carefully consider the strategic advantage and significance of Web 2.0 business model. (Shari S. C. Shang et al., 2009) Modern web based technologies are making the use of certain data mining techniques to predict the behavior of customers and commodities in certain domains of business. For example, companies such as Microsoft, Eli Lilly and Hewlett-Packard are focusing on trading futures contracts on commodities such as sales, product success and supplier behavior, based on predicted patterns. (Jim Petrassi, 2008) Conclusion In this report we have examined that how web has influenced different aspects of its user’s life including the society, education, health care, governance and business. Web based technologies have enabled the users to collaborate with each other through a platform, called social network, that form the basis for a digital society. Web has also provided the users with a new way to learn and study the topics of their interests, regardless of when they want to do it and where they are. In the field of health care, web technologies are the enabler of the development of various health care communities that keep the user aware of particular deceases and provide support to diagnose particular illnesses and their treatment. Web has enabled e-governance that allows to manage and resolve legal governmental issues in a more robust and efficient manner than traditional ways. Several companies are exploiting the powers of web to modernize their businesses to gain competitive advantage and serve the customer in a better way. For this purpose web provides various business models that act as a baseline for setting up the web based business e.g. B2B, B2C etc. Bibliography Shari S. C. Shang, Ya- Ling Wu, Oliver C. L. Hou, An Analysis of Business Models for Web 2.0, In proceedings of Sixth International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, pp. 314 – 319. Mohamad Taghi Isaai, Fatemeh Firoozi, Mahmood Reza Hemyari, 2009. E- election in Digital Society, In Proceedings of Third International Conference on Digital Society, pp.24-29. Johan Van Wamelen, Dennis De Kool, 2008. Web 2.0: A Basis for the Second Society? In proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance. Asa Smedberg, 2010. Web Communities for Preventive Health Care, in the proceedings of second international conference on e-health, Telemedicine and Social Medicine. pp 153-158. Aristides Th. Vagelatos, Fragkiskos K. Foskolos, Theodore P. Komninos, 2010. 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