Unit 5.2

What is Web 2.0? The Foundation of the Social Web

IT 233: Business Information Systems

Learning Objectives 🎯

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

✅ Define Web 2.0 and explain how it differs from Web 1.0.
✅ Identify the key principles of Web 2.0, such as user-generated content and the wisdom of crowds.
✅ Describe the core technologies that enable Web 2.0, including AJAX, RSS, and social networking platforms.

The Great Shift: From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 📊

Web 1.0: The "Read-Only" Web

Static pages
Content flows one-way (creator → user)
Passive consumption
Like reading a digital encyclopedia
Example: Early corporate websites

Web 2.0: The "Read/Write" Web

Dynamic and interactive
Users are creators and participants
Collaboration and social interaction
Like participating in a global conversation
Example: Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook

Activity: Web 1.0 or Web 2.0?

Click a button to classify each feature. Score: 0 / 8

🎬 Watch: Read-Only Web to Social Web

Defining Web 2.0: The Social Web

Web 2.0 is the second generation of the web, characterized by a major shift from static pages to dynamic platforms that emphasize user-generated content, collaboration, and social interaction.

It's not a single technology, but a new philosophy for building websites and applications.

The core idea: The user is no longer just a consumer, but a co-creator of value.

📜 Where "Web 2.0" Came From

The term was popularised by Tim O'Reilly's 2004 Web 2.0 conference and his 2005 essay "What Is Web 2.0". His key principles:

The web as a platform: software runs in the browser, not installed on your PC.
Harnessing collective intelligence: the more people use it, the better it gets.
Data is the real asset: the hard-to-copy part is the data users create, not the code.
Perpetual beta: the service is updated continuously, not released once a year.
The long tail: serving many small niches online can add up to more than a few big hits.

Principle 1: User-Generated Content (UGC)

The cornerstone of Web 2.0. The audience becomes the creator.

📝 Blogs & Wikis

Users write articles on Wikipedia or post their thoughts on Medium.

📸 Media Sharing

Users upload videos to YouTube or share photos on Instagram.

💬 Social Media

Users share updates on Facebook or join conversations on Twitter.

Activity: Match the UGC Type

For each platform, click the correct UGC category. Score: 0/6

🧪 Quick Activity: Which Web 2.0 Principle?

A music app quietly adds a new feature every week without asking you to install anything. → Perpetual beta and the web as a platform
An online bookshop earns most of its money from millions of rarely bought titles that a physical shop couldn't stock. → The long tail
A map app's suggested routes improve because millions of users report closed roads. → Harnessing collective intelligence

Principle 2: The Wisdom of Crowds 🧠

Harnessing collective intelligence to produce better outcomes than a small group of experts.

⭐️ Reviews & Ratings: Customer reviews on Amazon or Daraz.
📍 Local Guides: Ratings on Google Maps for restaurants in Kathmandu.
🤝 Collaborative Editing: Thousands of editors improving Wikipedia articles.

The belief that the aggregated knowledge of a large group is often more accurate and valuable than that of any single expert.

📚 Real Case: Can the Crowd Beat the Experts?

2001: Wikipedia launched, an encyclopedia anyone can edit.
2005: the journal Nature had experts compare 42 science articles. Wikipedia had somewhat more errors than Encyclopaedia Britannica, but far fewer than critics expected. (Britannica disputed the study.)
2012: after 244 years, Britannica stopped printing its paper edition and moved online.
Why the crowd competes: errors are spotted and fixed fast, and coverage is huge.

The wisdom of crowds works best with many independent contributors and rules for checking, such as Wikipedia's citations and editors.

A Printed Encyclopedia Set

🎬 Watch: How Wikipedia Works

🤖 Real Case: When the Crowd Isn't Wise (Microsoft Tay, 2016)

March 2016: Microsoft launched Tay, a Twitter chatbot designed to learn from conversations with users.
What happened: groups of users deliberately fed it offensive messages, and Tay began repeating them.
Within about 16 hours, Microsoft took Tay offline and apologised.

User-generated input is powerful but can be manipulated. Web 2.0 systems need moderation and safeguards.

Key Platforms of Web 2.0

Social Networking

Building and maintaining networks of people with shared interests.

Facebook: Connecting with friends & family.
LinkedIn: Professional networking.
Twitter: Public conversations & news.

Collaboration Tools

Working together in real-time, from anywhere.

Google Docs: Simultaneous document editing.
Wikis: Community-built knowledge bases.
GitHub: Collaborative code development.

Core Technology: AJAX ⚡

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

A web development technique that allows parts of a web page to update without reloading the entire page.

The Result: Faster, more responsive web applications that feel like desktop software.

Real-World Example

When you type in Google's search bar, suggestions appear instantly. When you "Like" a post on Facebook, only the button changes. That's AJAX in action!

More Core Technologies

#️⃣ Tagging & Folksonomy

A user-driven classification system.

Users apply labels (tags) to content.
The community-created system is a folksonomy.
Example: Using hashtags like #VisitNepal or #IT233 on Instagram and Twitter.

📡 RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

Subscribe to content updates from websites.

Get new content delivered to a central reader.
No need to visit each site individually.
Used by news sites, blogs, and podcasts.

🔌 Core Technology: Mashups and APIs

API (Application Programming Interface)

A doorway that lets one program request data or services from another, for example "give me a map of this address" or "process this payment".

Mashup

A new service built by combining data from several APIs. Example: a property website that shows listings on a map, with nearby schools and travel times.

APIs are why "the web is the platform": businesses build on each other's services instead of starting from scratch.

🎬 Watch: The Waiter Between Apps

Web 2.0 in a Nepali Context 🇳🇵

How are these principles applied locally?

Daraz & Hamrobazar

Leverage the "wisdom of crowds" through user reviews and seller ratings to build trust in e-commerce.

Foodmandu / Pathao Food

Restaurant ratings and dish reviews are classic UGC, guiding user decisions and improving service quality.

Nepali Facebook Groups

Groups like "Entrepreneurs for Nepal" are hubs for collaboration and user-generated advice, fostering a community.

These platforms succeed by building communities and empowering users, not just by providing a service.

🏡 Worked Example: A Homestay Uses Web 2.0

Illustrative: a hypothetical homestay near Bandipur. This answers Exam Long Q2.

Web 2.0 tool	How the homestay uses it	Business benefit
Reviews (UGC)	Asks happy guests to review it on travel sites	Trust from strangers abroad
Photo/video sharing	Posts short videos of sunrise and local food	Free marketing that guests reshare
Tagging	Uses a consistent place hashtag on every post	Easy to find in searches
Map mashup	Embeds a map and booking widget on its website	Guests book directly
Blog	Writes trekking-route guides	Shows up in search; positions it as the local expert

🏢 Enterprise 2.0: Web 2.0 Inside the Company

Andrew McAfee (MIT, 2006) coined Enterprise 2.0: using Web 2.0 tools inside organisations.

Internal wikis: one living manual instead of outdated PDFs.
Internal blogs and feeds: leaders and teams share updates openly.
Tagging and search: staff find documents and experts quickly.
Ratings and voting: employees rank improvement ideas.

This leads into Unit 5.3's Enterprise Social Networks.

Chapter Summary & Key Takeaways 🔍

Web 2.0 is the "Read/Write Web," shifting from passive consumption to active participation.
The core concept is User-Generated Content (UGC), where the audience becomes the creator.
It leverages the "wisdom of crowds" through reviews, ratings, and collaborative platforms.
Key technologies like AJAX make web applications feel fast and responsive.
Web 2.0 isn't just technology; it's a fundamental change in how we use the internet for business and social life.

Quick check — call on a student (1/2)

Instructor: True/False aloud, then Reveal on screen.

Quick check — call on a student (2/2)