Description

In recent discussions with industry leaders1 many are emphasizing the notion of a major shift in how the Internet is used. The shift is generally described as “Web 2.0,” a phrase coined in 2004 at an O’Reilly Media conference. Tim O’Reilly describes Web 2.0 as a shift toward more collaborative use of the Internet and points to examples ranging from Amazon’s reliance on and promotion of user reviews, to the group-mediated model of Wikipedia, to personal and commercial web logs, or “blogs.” While claims of a New Model, in any field, should be greeted with some skepticism, there are many compelling reasons to examine the Web 2.0 model of Internet evolution.