What is Web 2.0 anyway?

A technology platform, a business platform, a platform for Google domination?

For me it's much more simple. I can remember the first time I fired up Netscape Navigator sometime back in the mid 1990s. I believe the homepage was set to CNN. I was amazed to see the breaking news on my computer monitor and it came with color photos too!

In contrast I see the array of Web 2.0 web-based applications and platforms as being interactive. People leave comments on blogs, people tag each others photos on Flickr, etc. To Web 2.0 users, communication goes both ways. I guess that's why the phrase read/write web also made sense to me.

Incorporating Web 2.0 concepts in library web sites will be a challenge for us at De Anza College. Our current web design has it's roots in Web 1.0 concepts. Our "web team" consists of a few hours of one librarian's work load. If the library seriously wants to embrace Web 2.0 features on the web site, the library will need to support the librarian(s) invovled in order to provide the training, not only in the nuts and bolts of web production tools, but also in better understanding the design goals of Web 2.0.

Smiley Intervention

As part of the Week 1 assignment, we were asked to embed a YouTube video that is related in some way related to libraries. I present Smiley Intervention, which contains important information for those of us using electronic forms of communication, such as e-mail.

Getting started...

It's unlikely that someone from outside the group will come across this blog and actually choose to read this blog voluntarily. But it's a big, wide, well-peopled world, so here's the explanation.

The staff and faculty of the De Anza College Library are participating as a group to learn Web 2.0 (Read/Write Web, etc.) technologies. As those of us who work in libraries know well, our younger users spend much time at MySpace, Facebook, FlickR, chatting, and so on. I, and other De Anza College Library staff and faculty will venture into the Web 2.0 realm to help us understand the social networking and other internet tools currently being used by our library users. This blog will act as a sort of diary of my experience in the Web 2.0 virtual world.

Wish me luck!