Online content is developing in interesting ways. In the age of Web 2.0, publishers are searching for innovative and interesting approaches for delivering their content online. Meanwhile, the consumer is using the same new developments to combine multiple information sources, create "mash-ups" and interesting visualisations, have conversations, and drive innovation further forward.
First coined by Tim O’Reilly, “Web 2.0” is a trend in the use of internet technology and web design that aims to assist creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These ideas have spawned multimillion pound web-based service industries. Described below are some of the tools that are being used to deliver the latest interactive web content.
Blogs are webpages that serve as publicly accessible journals for their authors. They are now commonplace, with over 180,000 created worldwide every day, and covering all manner of topics. Originally used to keep diaries, blogs are now increasingly being used by businesses to advertise, and to deliver content to a wide audience. It's also a two-way street; a blog can give your customers the opportunity to talk back, engaging with you to help make better products. The CABI blog published its first article in 2006, and has since attracted a large audience and numerous discussions.
Mapping sites, like Google Maps or Yahoo Virtual Earth, are now being used widely to present information that had previously sat lifelessly in tables and graphs. Google Earth has an avid following of users who create sites dedicated to anything from forest fires to holiday destinations. Penguin recently delivered its first fiction story to be told using Google Earth Satellite Imagery! CABI is developing its conference calendar to include venue locations, tagged on Google Earth/Maps and Maps; the user will get directions to her conference from anywhere in the world. This feature will be trialled in CABI's Environmental Impact product to be launched in June.
Social Networks like Facebook or MySpace are thought by many to be "just for kids", allowing people to keep in contact with their friends. However, social networks can be so much more; developed around a shared interest to allow collaboration, innovation, and discussion around a common theme. Businesses, especially events organisers, are using Facebook to attract delegates and encourage follow-on discussion after the event.
Bookmarking sites, like Digg and Del.icio.us, allow the user to highlight, store and share interesting information for friends and other users of the site.
Overall the technologies that constitute "Web 2.0" have allowed the consumer to be in control of the content that they receive. Through the use of social media anybody can be a publisher (using a blog), a broadcaster (using YouTube), an editor (using Digg/Del.icio.us), a networker (using MySpace/Facebook), and a critic (using feedback on Amazon etc.). They can do it right now, today, and with relative ease; the boundary of what can be delivered using Web2.0 is shifting outwards every day. We have only scratched the surface of what can be achieved. Exciting times are ahead.
