Web 2.0: the Power Behind the Hype

Jared M. Spool provides an excellent primer on Web 2.0. The article gives a lowdown on the technologies that are enabling the Web 2.0 framework: APIs, RSS, Folksonomies, and Social Networking.

Spool also points out that Web 2.0 architecture still needs much work and will have to overcome "the kitchen organization problem."

While we all know where we've put the glasses and plates in our own kitchens, it takes only a trip to a friend's house to realize that not everyone organizes their kitchens the same way. Folksonomies and social networks make it easy to share, but if we all organize our own information with our own evolved structures, chaos is bound to emerge when these conflicting structures are merged on a massive scale.

But concludes,

Problems not withstanding we still feel that this emerging standard, combined with other new tools, such as AJAX and open source infrastructures, makes for a new and exciting environment. There's been a tremendous amount of hype surrounding all these new developments, but, for once, we are thinking that there really is some power that is beneath the hype that is worth paying attention to.

Other related posts: Computing Means Connecting and Why Web2.0 Matters: Preparing for Glocalization.

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