Web 2.0 ?

Web 2.0 is redefining the Internet not as a medium but as a platform: a platform for exchanges between users ("collective intelligence") and services or applications online.

It is the Internet that we all know, but which could have added a collaborative dimension, where a number of innovative concepts (Blogs, wikis, tags, social networks ...) are gradually enriching existing services to form a revolutionary all in one logic of continuous development.

Internet and online services have entered a maturation phase. For the four pillars of the Web (Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay) it is important to engage in a race for innovation. For if the quality level of the websites has increased overall in recent years, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand out and retain visitors. In this context, the concepts associated with Web 2.0 can bring response elements.

The blogging phenomenon - 70 million worldwide - shows how Internet users are hungry for making speech and recognition. 

Similarly, wikis are also experiencing strong growth. Wikipedia the collaborative online encyclopedia, is the figurehead. 

Obviously the principle of personal pages is not new, but recent technological developments and ergonomic tools available to users have adopting a much broader and a much more fluid circulation of information using the syndication mechanism and RSS. 


Social networks are the backbone of Web 2.0. All these services propose to create an online identity card that will allow you to find contacts and build a network of relationships within clicks. 
 


But the collaboration between users can take other forms.

Folksonomies are a good example with services as del.icio.us or Flickr. Behind this term lies a classification system based on collective keywords (or tags).

The principle is simple: it is the users who organize their content (photos, links, music ...) by applying to each elements one or more tags. These tags are then pooled and emerge statistically most relevant of the lot. 

The site selling T-shirts "LaFraise.com" was a pioneer of collaborative e-commerce :

Visitors publish visuals that are rated by Internet users and whether the creations reach a sufficient score, T-shirts are printed and sold. 

In this beautiful story, everyone wins: the author of the visual is paid for his work, customers choose their own T-shirts they like and the boss only prints T-shirts that he is sure are going to be sell.

The promise of Web 2.0 is opening a new era where users are both contributors and beneficiaries. We leave the era of two-way interaction (website <-> user) for one of collaboration and collective intelligence. A new start where a multitude of new uses and new applications are yet to find.