60% of online news is now published by individuals, rather than by organizations, networks and commercial portals.
That’s a huge change.
I think the most useful aspect of Web 2.0 is the way these technologies connect individuals and enable individual voices to be heard on the web.
Web 2.0 is based on the realization that even if the answer you want is not online, someone who knows the answer is online. The social networking and folksonomy sites are as much about people as content. Through them you can find out who is thinking what, and decide for yourself who you want to talk to.
When I wanted to learn how to integrate photos with my blog, I didn’t find the answer I wanted on the web – but I found some people who had solved the same problem, and by interacting with their blogs and discussion groups, I found the information I needed. When I finished my work, I let them see it, and we all derived some small pleasure from seeing progress.
So this is why I think Web 2.0 is so interesting – it’s the way it connects people with people, rather than just connecting people with information.
But there’s also a technical approach to Web 2.0 – ideas like Ajax, for example. A few comments about that here.
