Web 2.0 - Are You In The Wreck, Or Just Watching?

Web 2.0 is a term that was created by O’Reilly Media back in 2003. Many people falsely think it’s some new technology. We’re so accustomed to seeing versions of our software escalate numerically - we may naturally think Web 2.0 must be the latest version of the world wide web. A version that supersedes Web 1.0. Nope. Not true.

Web 2.0 refers to the interactivity of today’s web. Blogs, YouTube and other sites and software incorporate the ability for dialog on the net. People can do much more than surf the net. They can contribute, download, interact with others, join groups, have many points of contact and conversation. In short, Web 2.0 is the social connectivity of the web - in all of its variations. From RSS to posting pictures on Flickr. From Xanga to Facebook. From Blogger to WordPress. From dooce.com to tompeters.com. It’s the ongoing conversation between people that best defines Web 2.0.

While all of us experience Web 2.0, not all of us contribute to it. Everybody who logs onto the Internet experiences Web 2.0. When they go to a blog, look at somebody’s Flickr pictures or read the comments made to a story in the New York Times - they’re experiencing Web 2.0. They may never download a thing. They may never post a comment. They may never create a website of their own. Their web experience may be 100% one-way. The life of a spectator - not a player. The world is full of them.

But there is another group, often characterized by the young (sometimes the very young), who post often, upload pictures of everything, write of every sacred detail of their life, and basically view the world wide web as their circle of “friends.” MySpace and other social networks use that moniker casually. Friends. Often people you’ll never meet. Strangers with something in common is more like it. “Oh, you like Maroon 5? Me, too!” Friends.

Web 2.0 isn’t restricted by age. I’m many years removed from being a teeny bopper, but I have a MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, Blogger and this site. I’m not a mere spectator. Others can judge the level of my contribution, but this much is sure - I manage to take up more than my share of web space. That’s Web 2.0.

But I’m mostly intrigued not by the interactivity of Web 2.0, but the content of that interactivity. I’m fascinated by the behavior of younger people who assume the world wide web is where their voice is heard - where it must be heard. It’s an obvious place where we all go for information or to reach people. We can contact large groups of people with broad interests, or minute groups with esoteric interests.

It does baffle me at times the private and seemingly discrete information that many of us - those who are older, or more reserved by nature - would never upload onto the web — versus those among us who openly discuss and reveal every detail of their life. Heather over at dooce has made a nice blogging career out of such things. And I confess that I’m as hooked as any on her entries. Why do I care? I don’t know. But I do. Do I understand? Of course not, but at least she’s earning a living as a professional blogger. Money makes it all good.

Boys talk about girls. Girls talk about boys. Couples discuss their arguments. And love. It’s all in the open. No discretion. No secrets. Who needs rumors? We’ve got true public confessions happening every nanosecond of every day by millions of Web 2.0 participants.

Like a car wreck, we rubber neck because we can’t look away. We fail to keep our eyes on the road because we might miss something. Is our life made better by seeing a car crash? Does it do something valuable for us? No, but still we stare - and crank our neck like a contortionist to see whatever we can see.

Web 2.0 might best be summed up this way. For some, they enjoy being the crash that everybody looks at. Like a speeder standing on the side of the road being written a ticket by the cop - they don’t mind that everybody is looking at them. For others, we don’t want that level of attention. It’s just how things are — and it’s the way we’re wired. 1.0 instead of full blown 2.0.