Web 2.Oh Yeah!

In Chapter 2, Jenkins writes, "Once articulated by O'Reilly and his associates, Web 2.0 became the cultural logic for e-business—a set of corporate practices which seek to capture and exploit participatory culture. More than 'pasting a new user interface onto an old application' (Musser et al. 2006, p. 3), Web 2.0 represented a re-organization of the relations between producers and consumers in a maturing Internet market."

Okay, let me put this in everyday terms. The web has been revolutionized. Instead of a one-sided relationship, the internet has become co-dependent. In the past we use to log into the web and were overloaded with whatever information that internet providers, media, and corporations chose to give us. You had to take it or leave it. Now you can take it and make it your own!

The new interactive web has mad us both consumers and producers. User generated content has become the fore-front. With social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter our lives are available to the public. It is up to us to reveal what we want and to protect ourselves. Websites like Youtube, Flickr, and Deviant Art allow us to upload our own artistic pieces or other's art that we feel is important to share. For example - unfortunately I did not create the Kool-Aid guy pictured above, but fortunately it was available to me on Photobucket to share!

Blogs are probably my new favorite aspect of Web 2.0. While no one may even care what I think, I can send my thoughts out unto the world. Not every post is great, but I get satisfaction that someone may read them and laugh, cry, or provide them with thought provoking reflections.

The internet now belongs to us! We are now data providers! Watch this short video where O' Reilly gives his definition of Web 2.0:

If you could describe Web 2.0 in one sentence, what would it be?