The birth of the World Wide Web was characterized as Web 1.0. It was new to nearly everyone. Very few people had ever experienced anything like it. It made many things, like information, more easily accessible. Web 1.0 changed the world, but it wasn’t long before something new came along.
Web 2.0 became the Web of the future, providing features that Web 1.0 had never dreamed possible. Now, people could not only find information, but they could share it, as well. Even while the world stands in awe of Web 2.0 technology, the Web is constantly changing and transforming. It won’t be long before something else will come forward, something that will lead our world into the future.
Web 1.0 was the world’s introduction to the World Wide Web. It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 (Evans). Berners-Lee classifies Web 1.0 as the “read-only web” (Getting). A Web 1.0 website consisted mainly of information. Companies would design their sites as a cyber presence for their business. There was no feature offering feedback or a section allowing the users to share their information. It was all about the site owners providing the information and the users accepting the information.
Brian Getting states that this one-way give and take of information was “exactly what most website owners wanted: their goal for a website was to establish an online presence and make their information available to anyone at any time.” In fact, many sites today are still built with more Web 1.0 features in mind than the elements of Web 2.0 (Getting).
Web 1.0 websites are not very conducive to our current society. Many of the features are awkward and slow (Evans). The information is not in a state of continual change as it is in Web 2.0 sites. Web 1.0 websites mainly allow reading only with little opportunities for user contributions (Evans). These types of sites fail to draw significant user interest.
Web 2.0 is a completely different story. In 1998, Tim Berners-Lee shared his vision for the World Wide Web (Evans). “The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information,” (Evans). Web 1.0 had accomplished the desire for “a common information space,” but the element of information-sharing had yet to be completed.
Web 2.0 websites are all about interactivity. Web 2.0 wants the user to be involved. Actually, these sites need the reader to be involved in order to function successfully. Dr. Mike Evans notes that Web 1.0 sites “saw the Web as publishing, not participation.” Web 2.0 noticed this mistake and set the goal to change it.
Web 2.0 was coined as the “read-write web” (Getting). Users are literally asked to join in and contribute to the content being provided on the site. Web 2.0 was a whole new world of participation and interactivity, and users loved it.
“The newly-introduced ability to contribute content and interact with other web users has dramatically changed the landscape of the web in a short time. It has even more potential that we have yet to see,” Getting states.
Users love sharing their opinions, having pages on sites that are all their own, communicating with other users over the web, and seeing their own content displayed online. Web 2.0 sites feel more personal to users than Web 1.0 sites ever could. Social media sites are one of the most popular results of Web 2.0 sites. Users have embraced the social media craze, making these sites some of the most visited in the world.
As far as news gathering and distribution goes, Web 2.0 sites are much more conducive for a successful online news website than Web 1.0 sites ever were. Web 2.0 sites provide the unprecedented opportunity for continuous, ever-changing news. The deadline is always now. Stories can be posted on the site and then, updated 20 minutes later when new developments occur. The timeliness of Web 2.0 sites is amazing.
Web 2.0 also allows user participation. Users can find the stories they want more easily. They can share their opinions by “liking” a story, commenting on the story, or “sharing” it on their preferred social media site. Many online news sites also allow users to upload their own “news.” The technologies of today allow the common man to become the next reporter. Video, audio, and photos can be taken with mobile devices and uploaded to news websites with a few simple clicks. The users not only consume the news; they help provide it.
Although Web 2.0 has opened the door to numerous possibilities, it is true that Web 2.0 has also brought new concerns to the table. With Web 2.0 comes user-provided content, and with user-provided content comes varying views of discretion. Every person has a different code of moral ethics that they live their life by, but when thousands of users share the same space for displaying these differing ethics, tension arises.
Since Web 2.0, the world has been faced with the introduction of cyber crimes. Many of the crimes have involved the display of user-generated content that has offended or harmed other users. These issues involve each person individually, and since the amount of user-generated content is vast and innumerable, it would be impossible for a site to even attempt to monitor everything that their users are sharing or creating. Each person must abide by their own set of rules and ethics, but it is important to keep others in mind and make your online presence honorable and inoffensive.
The future of the World Wide Web is difficult to imagine. It already seems so innovative and technologically up-to-date. In the future, I imagine using the Web will become even easier. Search engines will be much more efficient, and user-generated content will continue to soar. I think online news websites will utilize the common man as the reporter even more than they do now, allowing the mere citizens to report from the scene as the story happens, which in turn alerts the reporters as to where the story is at.
Technology is definitely going to change. It always is changing, even now as I write. My brain is not futuristic enough that I can predict these changes, but I’m certain the changes will result in something incredible. As for now, Web 2.0 provides an exceptional platform to the World Wide Web, showing us how far we have come and how far we can continue to go.
Works Cited
Evans, Mike. “The Evolution of the Web – From Web 1.0 to Web 4.0.” Centre for Security, Communications and Network Research. Plymouth University. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.
Getting, Brian. “Basic Definitions: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0.” Practical Ecommerce, 18 Apr. 2007. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.
