Web 2.0 Advantages and Disadvantages

Web 2.0 Advantages and Disadvantages Abstract: Web 2.0 can be described as different types of web applications which allow people to publish knowledge that they have created and also allow to share with other people as well as facilitating interoperability from any web application. This technology allows people to create, share, collaborate communicate. Web 2.0 does not require any technical skills to participate, This feature allows users to participate and use applications widely. For the last few years web 2.0 technologies are showing their clear impact on our world. Mainly these sites occupy lead role in terms of user density and also click density. The density of web 2.0 users is also getting increased day by day. So the means of communication between people and organizations changed from general print ads, television, radio, static websites etc to Web 2.0 applications. As we can target specific type of category, web 2.0 is the best way to communicate with people. So we can collaborate the whole process of communication like meetings, promotions, class rooms, support etc with web 2.0 applications. So organizations are trying to leverage on new web 2.0 technologies like Facebook, Secondlife, Youtube etc to improve their standards and also to get things done in fast manner. I have done research on how organizations leverage on new technologies to collaborate in every aspect of growth. I mainly focused on advertisement point of view as well as marketing point of view. I analyzed many web applications like Wikipedia, Slideshare, Youtube, Secondlife, facebook. Introduction: Background:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are several organizations which are mainly operated by the people and for the people. Universities stand first in that position when compared to other fields like industries, factories etc. Here the world has been changing dramatically in such a way that people are seeking support from electronic world for their needs like to build new relationship, to gain knowledge and so on. Now internet has become the basic need for all people and it grabbed a reasonable amount of time from people. So universities now a days are planning to shift themselves partially or fully towards electronic world and collect attention of people to them selves for knowledge sharing. We are now in the age of using Web 2.0 technology where any one can communicate their opinions to any one. They really help us in communicating things to world in just fraction of seconds.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Digital natives in the above diagram means people with digital knowledge background. People who possess knowledge about digital applications like mobiles, internet, digital communication etc. Information is being shared between people who are aware of internet. This is already in the use from the start of internet and internet is used by people who know internet only. Internet Economics means economy that moves on internet through different applications. Internet economics is not very new for us and now a days businesses are completely dependant on internet and most of the large scale trading are been done using internet in digital format only, which can carry some benefits. This scenario helps in good in the faster growth of business. Read / Write Web means the common platform where we can read the information and at the same time we can write our own information. In general internet scenario we can either read or write like viewing a website or uploading a website. In classrooms also we can either find learning things while supervisor demonstrates. We can not demonstrate while we learn in such a way that we can add amendments immediately. But using this Read/write technology we can add amendments as per our thinking. Combination of digital natives, Internet economics and Read/Write web will lead to Web 2.0 technology. The best example for this is Ebay where we can sell our products (internet economics) by adding them into catalog and people can review them instantly(read/write web) and the site will be used by people who know internet in their computer or smart phones(digital natives) Web 2.0 can easily generate huge knowledgebase within fraction of seconds. That Knowledgebase is the combination of people, technology and process. Huge knowledgebase is being produced using the Read / Write web technology, with Internet Economics process by millions of people who are hands together. The huge database thus created will be helpful for millions of people again. Web 2.0 is a relationship between Many People -to-Many People. In this pattern it is quite common that content will get changed very frequently and also many visitors follow frequently updated content only. In that situation no one wants to look at websites which are updated by admin once for a week. People requirement for huge knowledgebase demanded for the development of web 2.0 applications and as usage of those applications have increased, people started searching for business within those applications. An example for that is Wikipedia. Wikipedia will be getting updated very frequently by millions of volunteers and also is getting updated. This is how we are using read / write technology to collaborate. 1.2 : Background and brief history of Web 2.0 in Universities : Web 2.0 in universities: Even though web 2.0 revolution has started few years back, web 2.0 implementation is not 100% done for 100% of universities. Universities are trying different technologies to leverage their businesses. Universities need to walk more steps ahead defeating the odds like un-implementation. Issues in Web 2.0 implementation in Universities: Rejection of change (like using new technology for teaching) is playing key role in the process of slow implementation of web 2.0 technology. Students, Lecturers have their fear of using new technology because of un-implementation only. Another factor for slow adoption of Web 2.0 system is no motivational force, which actually occurs when no body implements well and lack of exact correct information about things. People are much aware of Web 1.0 technology only and they are fear using Web 2.0, this is also a factor for non-implementation of Web 2.0 technology. People are confident in using old type of teaching and learning assuming that it is the correct process and web 2.0 will not suit for teaching and learning. That created impression that Web 2.0 is not suitable for teaching. Copyrighted problems are another problem of using web 2.0 technology. We can not digitalize things because of copyrighted issues. As web 2.0 stands for openness and networks, there is no security for copyrights. Universities are facing problem using web 2.0 in that aspect. Fear of culture aversion to innovation: Large institutions can not implement web 2.0 as a whole for the entire organization because of several factors like bureaucracy, governance, procedures for decision-making. So it needs a lot of creativity and high motivation for the implementation of web 2.0 application for institutional cause. Barriers to the use of Web 2.0 technology: Fear of facing criticism: Managers in the top level who are decision makers are fear about facing criticism about the procedure of web 2.0 technology. The main cause for that is they cant experiment with people changing traditional model of teaching and learning. Fear of Security: As we all know it Web 2.0 is meant for openness and any one can create profiles with any name(which are available) and they can scrap anything that they want. So as fresher for Web 2.0 technology, managers cant risk keeping security aspect away from mind. Suppose if any university starts using web 2.0 in any social community like secondlife Security is main aspect there where we can signup with any lecturer username (if he/she have not taken yet) and may guide students wrongly. These type of instances will fear managers not to implement things. Elements for a strategy of web 2.0 adoption in universities: The adoption of a web 2.0 approach to learning in universities is a complex process confronting important technological, managerial and human barriers. For these reasons the design of a set of objectives and a strategy accepted and promoted by the managers, especially those in charge of knowledge management, is absolutely needed. This first step requires in many cases radical cultural changes for people used to work and make decisions in a different scenario. Learning from Experiences: Since we are in the stage of experimenting with Web 2.0. We can not expect tremendous results from this but we can find a path to move through this system very fast. Following leads in inner organizations: When we find inner organizations, some people will be more interested in using new technology and some will not. So people who have interest in Web 2.0 learn faster than others and they can show the path to make others learn about new technology. This will allow system to implement new technology. Learning from industry: when we consider similar institutions, only few institutions will take initiation and they will adopt new technologies which will help them in gaining fast experiences than others. So organizations which did not perform any experiments on web 2.0 can learn things from already implemented organizations which is a quicker way for learning things with out failure. Open access and use of contents : The core advantage of Web 2.0 is openness and heavy availability of content to anyone. This allows creativity for the users and easy for finding things available with tagging. The information should be search engine friendly and this content should be easy to catch in search engines also. Design of institution as platform for knowledge sharing: This is main aspect in Web 2.0 technology. Institutions should allow users to post knowledge related information from both internal and external users of the organization platform. This allows users to show creativity and helps in finding new solutions for problems. This will also lower cost for innovation. The external development of web 2.0 tools would reduce considerably the costs of IT infrastructure and software. This will also help in fastening knowledge sharing. References: Freire, Juan (2008). Universities and Web 2.0: Institutional challenges. eLearning Papers N º 8. ISSN: 1887-1542 The adoption of a web 2.0 approach to learning in universities is a complex process confronting important technological, managerial and human barriers, and an adaptive strategy is needed that could be designed from previous experiences of educational, research and business organizations. This strategy could include the following lines: Learning from previous and on-going experiences, before developing a priori technology and protocols inside the institutions. Both lead users inside the organization and other organizations adopting web 2.0 tools and paradigms should be especially useful. Opening the access and use of contents. Web 2.0 is especially useful and creative when knowledge is digitized, modular and allowed to be used and distributed in a flexible way. Designing organizations as open platforms for knowledge creation and sharing, both among members of the internal community and with the participation of external users. References: Freire, Juan (2008). Universities and Web 2.0: Institutional challenges. eLearning Papers N º 8. ISSN: 1887-1542 Paul Anderson (Feb 2007) : JISC Technology and Standards Watch John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler : Minds of Fire open education, the long tail, web 2.0 Web 2.0 Uses in universities: Research Questions: What is the significance of web 2.0 in universities? How universities are getting benefited from Web 2.0 technologies? How many universities are using web 2.0 to collaborate their classrooms? What are those? How many universities are using Facebook to communicate with students? How can use twitter to collaborate notice board? Can we use Youtube for video demonstrations? How universities are using Secondlife to conduct virtual classrooms? Is virtual classroom really beneficial for the student to learn? How blogs are helpful for universities? What is the use of Slideshare in the process of learning? Can we use web 2.0 applications in mobiles or PDAs? How can we leverage advertising programs to web 2.0? Summary: Chapter 1 presents the basic introduction and background of Web 2.0 technologies in which I explained briefly about Web 2.0. Research questions are also phrases in this chapter. This chapter will give better idea of web 2.0 technologies. Chapter 2 demonstrates about literature review in which the concept of Web 2.0 is explained clearly. I presented brief introduction about Facebook, Blogger, Youtube and other web 2.0 applications. Organizational uses of Computer mediated environments is an sub chapter included in the chaper 2 Chapter 3 gives an idea of different research methodologies where I presented different methods to do a research study. I also included survey with a Web 2.0 user and I resolved solution for my research study. Chapter 4 demonstrates findings like how web 2.0 is getting used by organizations. I concluded my research with chapter 5 with my opinions about Web 2.0 in Organizations. Literature Review: World before Web 2.0 : Before 2003, the world looked to be to be semi connected. We used to check static sites and emails on the internet. Even though we had emails and websites, the world looked to be semi connected. Assuming if we had started a business and update in our website, it used to get days to reach people about update as there was no proper network between people and the only connectivity between them is emails. In that situation, suppose if we want updated content, then it may take 1-2 weeks to get indexed by search engines and used to appear after a week time in search engines. There was no question of possibility to collaborate their businesses in those days. That was the problem of huge organizations and we can estimate small and middle level organizations about that. In that situation people used to depend on website administrators only for the site updates. In that the system is manual in such a way that, whole system used to depend on single or multiple persons for updating. No one knows when site will get updated and they need to check back for intimations. WEB 2.0 : Introduction : Web 2.0 is a set of economic, social, and technology trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the Internet—a more mature, distinctive medium characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects. (OReilly Radar) Web 2.0 has been described as an attitude not a technology by Davis (2005). We can call Web 2.0 as social revolution or social networking in which people will form a network of own interests and get intimations about them within seconds. In this way of social networking, any information could get pass with out delay. According to OReilly, Paul Graham and Dion HinchCliffe, who are WEB 2.0 creators. Web 2.0 is here and it is big; Architecture of Participation, the Network Effect (social network), and Harnessing the collective intelligence are fundamentally new and different from web 1.0; Web 2.0 is more about a paradigm shift in how people use the web, less about new technology. Web 2.0 is not based on a technology shift, but rather a usage Paradigm shift There are also people who argue Web 2.0 is functionally similar to Web 1.0 and there is have no difference. But we should agree the fact that people accepted Web 2.0 very well and are using in their daily routine. Fundamental Difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is before 2003 we used to operate internet for websites and emails. The websites were been modified by the owners itself and people will not get any intimations for the modifications performed on that website. People must run an application in their client system to access anything. (like ms outlook for emails). That made things complex and people got bored of their non-participation. Revolution of social networking sites totally changed the way that people think. We need not install software in client system to access applications. Those applications will get installed in the server itself and can be accessible in any system using browser. Web 2.0 has changed entire world of communication and people started blogging and other networking , People who got waxed with non participation started social networking in their own way. Web 2.0 technologies like Youtube, myspace, facebook, flicker, blogs, RSS, Second life have came into limelight, People started creating their indentity in several web 2.0 websites and started growing their network with the help of communities. Web 2.0 has enlarged in such a way that major companies like google, Microsoft, yahoo started buying Web 2.0 sites like youtube, myspace for millions. Core advantage in collaborating businesses using Web 2.0 is a single line of publishing will blast information to thousands of people which lead to quic k updating and ultimately reaches goal of targeting people for sales as well as support. Limitations with Web 1.0 Technology: Web 1.0 was meant for the purpose of viewing HTML documents and file sharing (FTP). That was not pretty good for some important functionality like Interactivity: This is very important for web applications especially for dynamic web applications. We may need auto refresh content grabbed from database which will help people in getting updated content within seconds. As this type of interactivity is very important for applications and Web 1.0 got failed in this feature which supports click and page refresh only. One Way communication : Web 1.0 supports only single way communication as phone call system in such a way that client has to pull data from server if he wants and server wont push any data automatically with out client interaction. That might be good methodology and it did not suited us in viewing automated content. This type of communication has inspired for the development of AJAX, which is one of Web 2.0 technologies. Using AJAX we can initiate two way communication which actually works as client pull as well as server push. Lack of Data Reliability: Actually in business applications we need to send and get data safely from server to client and vice versa. There should not occur lose of packets which sends data from source to destination. So using web 1.0 technology there are some limitations which could not guarantee safe journey of packets from source to destination. Mobile browsing non supportability: Applications developed using Web 1.0 could not be loaded in mobile browsers (which is called WAP browsing). This is another limitation for Web 1.0 technology. Even though we need to go more ahead than Web 2.0 to utilize WAP services effectively, we have achieved a bit in case of Web 2.0 technology. (Using Web 2.0 technology also we could not achieve things like video upload etc, but we can view websites) Lack of support for Rich user experience : Web 1.0 will not support rich user experience and we need toi refresh every time to check the content. Say if we want to signup for email account, it used to take 5 minutes at least (as we did used to check username will server every time). Now if we want to signup it will not take more than a minute. Benefits of Web 2.0 Technology: Web 2.0 technologies is widely used in peer to peer networks, social networks, web blogs, forums etc. More benefits of Web 2.0 technologies are Acceleration: It accelerates the performance of web applications and could transfer data very fast from server to client system and the data will be very much reliable. Good User Interaction: Web 2.0 supports great user interaction in such a way that user could navigate through options very easily. Simple and great way of publicizing things: This could be achieved using Web 2.0 technology with the help of social networks, blogs, forums, Second life. Cheap way of advertising things: Generally if we want to advertise things on electronic media, it may cost several dollars, but when we use Web 2.0 technologies like web blogs, social networks we can reach thousands of people with just a dollar cost. Several solutions for single problem: We can find several solutions for single problem posted, which got posted in networking sites, web blogs etc. I tried learning ASP.NET few months back in that situation I got struck about initiation into programming. Then I used facebook, orkut communities for solution where I got at least 30 responses in 24 hours time from people who are anonymous to me. Easy way to collaborate business: Using Web 2.0 technology we can collaborate businesses which leads to finding new solutions. People can find solutions for the real life problems using virtual ways. Leveraging Business: We can leverage our business using these of web 2.0 tools like facebook, orkut, Second life. Main thing that leverages business will be instant messaging like RSS feeds. One of my friends got benefited in stock market because of RSS news where he gets every second updated news about listed companies in NASDAQ. Easy Online Presence: This is the revolution which is been showing impact in the development of web 2.0 technology. We are enjoying benefits of Web 2.0 technology in such a way that we can purchase things online using web hops such as ebay showcase etc. Is Web 2.0 an end for web development? : Absolutely NO Web 2.0 is not an end for Web development techniques. We do have many other things to be implemented on portable devices such as mobiles. They can be implemented in advanced technology of Web 2.0 only and we are assuming that to be Web 3.0 technology, let us wait until we got things more sophisticated. Mean while we can research for more Web 2.0 applications while will help businesses to collaborate them. Computer Mediated Environment (CMEs): What is CME: Different environment that are set about by computers is called computer mediated environments. In other words, if two computers are connected each other through a means of computer then it can be called as Computer Mediated Environment. General internet applications like emails, chats, social networks are examples for CMEs. Suppose a person in India is in contact with a person in United Kingdom through computers, then it can be called as Computer Mediated Environment. Here the media is computer so we are calling as computer mediated environment. Basic internet communication environment using applications like emails, chats can also be categorized into Computer Mediated Environment. Reference : Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 82-91 Impact of Web 2.0 on CMEs : Every system which are connected through systems are termed to be computer mediated environment. Also server to personal computer environment can also be stated as CME and websites can be categorized into that. With the adoption of web 2.0 technologies the nature of CMEs have entirely changed and people started using computer mediated environments as frequent as they can, which is the main reason of Web 2.0 revolution. People started using internet very well and so applications like mails, chat, video streaming etc. Web 2.0 got its importance in combining all the applications on a single platform. We have improved functionalities on a single platform in such a way that we can login into a website, email friends, chat with them with out using separate software installation, participate in community discussions, view videos, have conversation about my desertion project etc. All the above things can be handled with out need of separate account logins. This could be possible using web 2. 0 only. Thus Web 2.0 changed the way people deal with internet. Also Web 2.0 technologies made human to depend for any kind of solution. Facebook : Facebook is the social networking website which was started in the year 2004. Mark Zuckerberg is the Founder, who started his facebook empire in Massachussetts, USA. The head quarters is located in California, USA. More than 900 people are being employed in Facebook Inc. Main features of Facebook: Facebook is the social networking website where users are interconnected to each other on single platform. That platform is nothing but Facebook. Not only user to user connectivity, but also have organization to user connectivity, which helps in leveraging business techniques. Users need to signup with facebook in order to use services from facebook website. Organizations can also start their own groups to which they can send invitations to users and subscribed users will get updates from moderator of the particular group(or community). The above is most interesting factor about facebook and the most helpful thing for businesses and we shall discuss about this in our next chapter. In facebook there are other options like walls, where we can post our ads which will be displayed to other users. News feeds are also helpful for users in facebook, in which users will get automatic updates like profile changes, event updates from their friends. Facebook also prov ides image hosting, where we can get unlimited photos to host. Another option called tagging which will be available to tag(mark) things using keywords. This option will be most useful one to identify things quickly by other users. Many of the universities have their organizational groups in facebook (organizational groups are referred to as official groups) and friends group is referred to as student groups (these groups are been maintained by friends only for intercommunication). The main source of income for Facebook Inc is through banner ads and text ads. We can also send virtual gifts to other users. There is another option called chatting to chat with other users and poking option to poke users. Another important feature here in facebook is posting classified ads. Users can post classified ads in facebook for free of cost. This feature is very much useful for small businesses. Facebook started itself as simple graphical interface(only with text) and have grown to fully graphic al interface. About 11 months back, facebook started its profile linking with customized name like www.facebook.com/satishkakollu Facebook can also been viewed on other mobile devices also. Facebook has its own applications developed by its development team as well as voluntary contributors who contribute applications developed by their own. We can make some communication interfaces very ease using those applications. Facebook has their portal in different languages including Thai, Chinese, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil and many more. Sources: Eldon, Eric. 2008 Growth Puts Facebook In Better Position to Make Money. VentureBeat. http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/18/2008-growth-puts-facebook-in-better-position-to-make-money/. Facebook frowns on buddy-buyer company, By The New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/facebook_frowns_on_buddy_buyer_company_DixVGIpAnBGuoWCeMqt5QJ http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/zuckerberg-facebook-will-have-a-business-plan-in-three-years http://developers.facebook.com/news.php Second Life: Second life.com is a virtual world website developed by Linden Lab in the year 2003. This website is accessible through specific software called Second life viewer. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in the activities of individuals and groups, and create and trade virtual property and services to cope with, or running around the world, which residents call the grid. Second Life, people over 18 years old, and young people who for the second life 13 to 17 years of age. Features of Second Life : Second life can be viewed via Second life viewer software only. Users will be termed as residents and they will communicate with each other using customized avatars. Secondlife viewer will accept keyboard strokes only and we can fly from one region to another region using keyboard keys. There are several options like that and we can explore a lot of things using second life. Residents are of different types both free and paid. Now a days second life is charging $9.95 for paid members and comparing to free member it has advanced options. We can virtually reside in any place of the world which is the new concept of web 2.0. We can purchase things using Linden Dollar, this is the specialized currency in secondlife where we can purchase land ownership, islands etc. We can also purchase surname of the user, so that user can choose ours in the surname of their username as surname must be choosen from available username and business can purchase surnames to make th em available to students. There are many opportunities for innovation and profit in the world, Second Life, because in the real world. To open a shop, sell gadgets, become a land speculation, the choice is you can make. Many residents are part or all of their real life income second life business. We can find different types of environments in Second life, some of them are Dancer, Musician, Editor, Player, Landscape etc. We can join in that particular environment. Business in Second Life: We can do business in Second life like buying properties and maintaining our own organizations. We can maintain virtual classrooms and also can give presentations over there. Secondlife also helps in providing good market place for our businesses and many of the universities (mainly business schools and Top Companies) are already been there to satisfy their demand. I did observed companies like IBM having their virtual space there. Sources : https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Philip_Linden http://tleinsl.com/index.htm http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/03/million.html http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Estonia/140/111/57/ Blogger: Blogger was started by Pyra Labs in August 1999 in San Francisco. Even though those days were boomed with dotcom revolution, they faced problems in getting them selves funded by venture capitalists. Using blogger, We can publish our voice for free and as simple as mailing, this is the core advantage of web 2.0 and in the previous case (in web 1.0 we must be aware of html code atleast to modify a website). With this the revoultion of easeness in web 2.0 technologies started. we can maintain our website for free of cost using blogger which comes with www.ourname.blogger.com (also www.ourname.blogspot.com after google purchased blogger). Simple user interface is the positive aspect for blogger.com where we can post our content using simple admin panel within seconds. We can use custom templates for our website. We can even upload our template to that website. We can easily make search engines to index our site easily. This is another core advantage of blogger and because of the same reason, many businesses have their blogs to communicate with people. Time stamping feature make blogger more popular, as user can know what is going on in those blog with time. Actually to upload photoes and videos to our website, it will take alot of coding work when we use web 1.0 but using blog