Whether we like it or not the technology and culture of Web 2.0 is something all businesses should take note of – but as usual businesses are left trying to work out how it all affects them. To offer some guidance through simple explanation of the technology and 5 Ideas where real issues can be addressed, this white paper goes some way towards clearing the way for businesses to work with Web 2.0.

The aim is not to blindly evangelise and urge everyone to become involved – rather to help our clients align Web 2.0 with their business strategy in an appropriate and realistic fashion.
What is Web 2.0?
Sceptics may see Web 2.0 as nothing more than a game of buzzword bingo. So rather than trying to defining Web 2.0, let’s talk about the companies and websites that are causing the buzz.

The most talked about aspect of Web 2.0 is social networking and the most talked about social networking site is MySpace – so much so that the predominantly youthful users have become known as the MySpace Generation. MySpace recently had more page views than Yahoo!, Google and MSN. No one can argue with its influence. So how does MySpace work? Users begin by creating a public profile. They can embellish their basic details with photos, music, videos and thoughts for the day. Users then begin building their network of friends. These friends can be people they know, or stars from TV, radio and the movies. Many bands now start their careers with a profile on MySpace.

MySpace is essentially a teen phenomenon. These are people who have grown up with text messaging and instant messaging online. For them, the message boards on a users’ profile have effectively replaced email as the primary method of non-instant communication. No longer will dating teenagers swap phone numbers or even an email – instead they will find each other on MySpace. You can see why Rupert Murdoch paid $580 million for access to the youth market. The concept isn’t unique. Facebook provides a similar set of functionality specifically for students, but you’ll need an official academic email to sign up.

Flickr and YouTube apply the social networking concept to sharing photos and videos. One feature of Web 2.0 to have emerged from these sites is social classification. The sites provide a mechanism where users can tag their uploaded content. The most popular tags float to the top, an incentive which ensures people reuse tags where possible. This tag structure has become known as a Folksonomy.

The strength of these Folksonomies over more traditional tagging systems is that tags directly reflect users’ own vocabulary. This makes searching and navigating around a site with millions of pages intuitive for the users.

Once it was the case that the website owners created and owned content on the web. This is not the case any more. Content is created by individuals in weblogs. Content is shared freely, using a protocol called RSS (Real Simple Syndication). Websites like Technorati index over 50 million weblogs. These blogs are collectively known as the blogosphere.

Download pdf 5 Ways Businesses can benefit from Web 2.0