Week 1 Assignment

April 14, 2009 at 4:26 pm (Uncategorized) (, , , , , )

I selected the following three articles to illustrate the meaning of Web 2.0:

1)  The A.P was the First Web 2.0 Company – by Saul Hansel

2)  Web 2.0 101 – A Primer – by Scott Hendison

3)  Yes, CEO’s Should Facebook and Twitter – by Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta

These articles collectively highlight the fundamental ideology employed in web 2.0, that the utilization of dynamic online exchange of information illustrates the evolution of the web from a proprietary, closed-source system to an open, collective intelligence community.  In addition, they depict how successful businesses have deployed web 2.0 concepts in their websites in order to succeed in the changing landscape of traffic-driven web development.

In the case of the A.P., it is interesting to note that the author presents his business model as one based on several tenets of web 2.0.  They basically “use and re-use” information from different contributors, such as local newspapers, in-house staff of correspondents, as well as give its clients “the express permission to edit, modify, remix and combine its content with other information and opinion to create a product of interest to an audience in a particular place or of a particular political point of view.”  However, in contrast to web 2.0 the A.P. actually charges for its services.  The author suggests that it could in fact adjust its business model to represent the entire publishing community, and that this diversification and move away from merely representing the 1,500 newspapers in the U.S. would be critical in order for it to be effective and viable as a true web 2.0 company.  Clearly, the availability and freedom of use of information is central to building a dynamic exchange between company and client.

Sources:

The A.P was the First Web 2.0 Company – by Saul Hansel

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/the-ap-was-the-first-web-20-company/

Web 2.0 101 – A Primer – by Scott Hendison

http://www.semportland.com/web-20/web-20-101-a-primer/

Yes, CEO’s Should Facebook and Twitter

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/11/social-networking-executives-leadership-managing-facebook.html

Advertisement

1 Comment

  1. Bobby said,

    “The utilization of dynamic online exchange of information illustrates the evolution of the web…to collective intelligence” captures the definition of Web 2.0. Furthermore, every leaders should read your referenced article (CEOs should Facebook and Twitter) or at least ponder Gary Hamel’s quote: “While the Web was founded on the principle of openness, the most honored virtue among senior executives seems to be control. Most companies have elaborate programs for top-down communication, including newsletters, CEO blogs, Webcasts and broadcast e-mails. Yet few, if any, companies have opened the floodgates to grassroots opinion on critical issues.”

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.