Web 2.0 … The Machine is Using Us

This is by far the best video made available on youtube for a longtime. It explains what web 2.0 is under 5 minutes while outlining the main technologies, social networks and truths associated with this new era. Try to keep learning 2.0 in the back for your head while viewing this vid-post.

Educational web 2.0 links… pass or fail?

Here is a mashup (linked image below) of a few Web 2.0 companies and websites that could be applied to Learning 2.0 and especially elearning 2.0. In some cases it would seem impossible to apply these 2.0 ideals to any means of learning. Think outside the box!

If you can’t apply something, leave your comments and see if anyone else can help. All of these companies and websites were found via the Brainpath.net community on Learning 2.0:

Web 2.0 Whitepaper

This whitepaper explains the basics of Web2.0 as well as offers some interesting links and some basic examples. Most of the information presented within this paper has been drawn from a multitude of Web 2.0 website/ web applications.

Skeptic appeal

Ok let’s play devil’s advocate! So, web 2.0 is good enough and the glass is half-empty; make that mostly empty. Here we go…

Web 2.0 takes most of criticism from its lack of standards and that it’s very hard to define… so most people see it as a buzzword. Others find that practically everything, on the web, invented after 2004 is deemed web 2.0.

Other points have been noted; such as it has no business models of association and that it’s nothing new; some people believe that web 2.0 has existed since 1995 where Amazon.con allowed users to write their own consumer guides.

We can’t really disagree with any of these aspects but we don’t see this criticism to be strong enough to dismiss the idea. After all, web 2.0 expresses an era of social and friendly web content / services.

Web 2.0 ≠ Open Source

There is a tendency to define Web 2.0 as Open Source (OS) since this “second generation” of the internet is “[emphasizing on] online collaboration and sharing among users.” However, they are different. OS implies “free software” which may or may not make use of web 2.0 ideologies. Similarly, some web 2.0 services / products may be free to use (OS) or may require money.