Crickey O’Reilly!

The term ‘Web 2.0′ has clearly taken hold with more than 9.5 million citations in Google, but there’s still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means with some people decrying it as a meaningless marketing buzzword and others accepting it as the new conventional wisdom. Whichever side of the fence you’re on this article, ‘What is Web 2.0?’ by Tim O’Reilly, is really rather interesting as it explores the Web 2.0 meaning and considers the various ways it translates into our modern day society - sometimes without us even realising it.

Tim talks of podcasting, folksonomy and RSS, and if you’ve ever needed a good way to describe blogging, try this: 

‘If an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It may not reflect the deep structure of the brain, which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought. And as a reflection of conscious thought and attention, the blogosphere has begun to have a powerful effect.’