The term Web 2.0. was originally coined by Tim O’Reilly as a means of describing the specific characteristics, applications and underlying ideologies of the web companies that survived the now infamous dot.com crash of late 2001. Most important of these ideologies was the ability of surviving Web 1.0. companies to embrace “...the power of the web to harness collective intelligence.” (O’Reilly, 2007, p.23)
Where Web 1.0. saw taxonomies, Web 2.0 sees Folksonomies.
Where Web 1.0. saw page views, Web 2.0. sees cost per click
Where Web 1.0. saw content management systems, Web 2.0 sees Wiki’s
Where Web 1.0. saw Britannica Online, Web 2.0. sees Wikipedia
And the list goes on. Essentially though, O’Reilly (2007. p.36) outlines seven core competencies that all Web 2.0. companies should entail -
1) services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability,
2) control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them,
3) trusting users as co-developers,
4) harnessing collective intelligence,
5) software above the level of a single device,
6) lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models.
7) leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
Point number three is particularly interesting as it relates directly to the term produsage coined by Axel Bruns. Produsage has come about by means of technological evolution, and has only been realised as a result of the advent of Web 2.0., which provides “...technological and technosocial frameworks for produsage communities”. (Bruns, 2007, p.2)
Hence, Prousage describes “...the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement” (Produsage.org) Furthermore, as the adjacent diagram would suggest, the produser is actually a hybrid of the consumer and the producer.
Such active consumption made possible by Web 2.0. has also seen the opening of more niche markets online. New technology means individuals are capable of searching deeper and further in order to find content that really meets their needs. Such an occurrence is defined as “The Long Tail”, and this is worrying for advertisers. With consumers no longer simply conceding and succumbing to mass marketing, and hit driven culture, the long tail would suggest it will be much harder to predict what will and won’t sell. Hence, although niche markets can have their benefits for advertisers, as outlined in my blog on social networking, the so called ‘length’ of the long tail is actually making targeting groups of consumers more and more difficult.
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