Is Web 2.0 Played Out?

Is Web 2.0 played out? My friends in libraryland often complain that some folks use the term "Web 2.0" too frequently and way too inaccurately. So I decided to do a little digging on my own into definitions of Web 2.0 for libraries and archives. I settled on Wikipedia for simple definitions, however my ultimate goal is to post examples of Web 2.0 integrated into library digital collections. Keep a lookout for those posts. In the meantime, below is a glossary of Web 2.0 terms. Oh, and before I forget Go2Web.com has a list of Web 2.0 technologies for you to try.

Glossary

Web 2.0[1]

Blogs (short for Web logs) are online websites where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.

Collective intelligence is a form of intelligence that emerges as a result of collaboration and competition among many individuals.

Mash-ups combine data from many sources into one tool (i.e. Google maps and Flickr.)

Peer-to-peer networking is a computer network that uses the collective bandwidth of network participants rather than conventional centralized resources where a relatively low number of servers provide the core value to a service or application.

Podcasts and vodcasts are audio and video recordings distributed through an aggregator such as iTunes.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or Podcasts.

Social networking services uses software to build online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.

Web services isdefined by the W3C as "a software system designed to support interoperable Machine to Machine interaction over a network."

Wikis are a software that allows users to easily create, edit, and link pages together.

[1] Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Homepage Startup - "making life a little more manageable"

We all suffer from webpage overload. Each day I have to open no less than 20 webpages. Typing URL's into the address bar of my favorite browser is time consuming. I've tried saving pages in the page options on my browser, using a variety of web apps - everything from Google Reader for rss feeds to StumbleUpon to manage my favorite web links. Then I ran across Homepagestartup.com and that's when life got a little easier.

Homepagestartup.com is a web app that provides quick access to your favorite websites. It's so simple to use. Just go to http://homepagestartup.com/ to add sites that you visit frequently. Click on a square box in the center of the webpage and type in the page title and the URL. Click save and you're done.

Since I began using the site about a month ago, I've even used their tab feature to add multiple webpages in specific categories such as "Conferences", "Health", and "Finances". If you're like me, you probably pay many of your bills online. This site makes it so much easier to access those company websites.

While the site delivers on its ability to help you manage multiple frequently-visited websites, it could use a few tweaks. First, when I tried to move "squares" from one tabbed area to another, I couldn't. I had to create a new "square" under a new tab and then delete the one in the location I did not want it to be. Sometimes a page doesn't automatically appear in the square to which it is assigned. I have found that by tabbing through the form, I am able to have more success when I press the enter key to assign a webpage to a square instead of clicking on the "Save" button. Another annoying feature is that when I change the custom settings to add or remove squares, some of the remaining squares get disorganized such that I have to rearrange them individually.

There are several cool features that make the site very useful. You can share your page with your friends and colleagues in Facebook or MySpace in read-only format. That means you don't have to settle for telling someone about your websites, you can actually show them. Some minor customizations are available at this point which means you can customize the look of your page using the color picker. Perhaps, in the future I will be able to perform more interesting customizations, but for now I'm satisfied just not having to remember all of those websites.