Introduction to Part 2

Delving into the world of Web 2.0 we have discovered that Web 2.0 incorporates a number ideas and concepts including social activities, information re-use, interoperability, accessibility, usability, innovation and trust which were explored in Part 1. To realise these ideas and concepts several technological developments were required – these are explored in this section.

Technologies

15. Dashboards and Widgets

Dashboards are in vogue at the moment and are one of the latest technologies to be labelled with “Web 2.0” even though they have been around in various forms for a very long time. Dashboards allow small nuggets of information (often referred to as widgets or gadgets) from various sources to be dropped onto a central area (or multiple areas). There is a huge library of available widgets to choose from and these can often be real-time. You can arrange widgets on a dashboard pretty much how you like and services such as iGoogle allow choosing widgets from a huge library of information providers (for instance my Monk and his I.T. Junk cartoon is a Google widget!). One of the problems with widgets currently is interoperability, for example you cannot easily drop a widget designed for one dashboard onto another vendor dashboard.

16. Tags

Extending the concept of meta-data the technology of tags emerged. Tags are often confused as simple keywords however, conceptually at least; they are far broader in scope than keywords. Tags are meta-data – that is information that describes information, often tags are attached to web pages to describe conceptual ideas but can be attached to practically any content you could imagine. Tags are still in their early stages of development and there is little formality behind the mechanics of tag usage. For instance in the use of plurals (i.e. table or tables), or context (i.e. is a table made of wood or is a table a grid of information?). Many sites are now using tagging concepts to add additional value to existing information. Geo-tagging (sometimes referred to as Geo-coding) is a more recent concept that adds location based information to content – you can read more about this in the Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging.

17. Syndication and Publisher/Subscriber (RSS and Atom)

Producing the best information in the world is of little use if no one knows about it or can access it. Web sites used to rely on many different ways of presenting and transmitting information until syndication technologies emerged. Publisher/subscriber subscriber models realised through Atom and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) really helped to provide standard ways of offering syndication and data re-use. RSS is a straightforward and simple way for almost anyone to participate in providing data streams for Web 2.0. Mash up services and Aggregators make effective use of syndication techniques.

18. Database

Generating a huge information base leads to the requirement for storage space, storage locations and maintenance as this information needs to be stored somewhere and by someone. There are also additional legal complexities attached to information relating to who actually owns the information contained on databases so it is always worth checking the terms and conditions when signing up for a service. Modern databases use a relational idea (tables of related information) but other techniques are emerging such as object data base models which allow data to be stored as it is likely to be used (hybrids also exist). Scaling database information and ensuring consistency to meet a massive consumer base is a constant challenge for developers and applicators alike.

19. Glocalization: Local Information versus Global Information

Bringing global ideas into a local context is an example of glocalization. Information about a small area can be just as important and valuable as broad information about a wide area. Blogging is an important factor in glocalization, instead of struggling to compete with hundreds or thousands of other “me too” information providers it is often recommended to find a more niche area to focus on.

20. Podcasting, Vidcasting and Blogging

Reading a magazine, listening to the radio or watching the television all have one major drawback, they have to make an assumption over what the end user is interested in and as a result typically offer generalised information in a broad area to meet the broadest consumer of information. The birth of public media casting services (Blogging, Podcasting and Vidcasting) allows a wider array of diverse information allowing the consumer more choice. Production standards are often lower than traditional broadcast methods however this is starting to change.

21. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Making use of service based technologies such as SOAP and REST, SOA relies on loosely coupled services to work together to provide an application platform. The application of dashboards is an example of SOA in use. ZDNet have ten examples of SOA in practice in their article: Ten examples of SOA at work, right now. SharePoint is an example of SOA at work – though some indicate the SharePoint only shows aspects of SOA (How SharePoint and SOA Fit Together).

Technologies

22. Web Services (Loose Coupling (SOAP and REST) and Web Service Definition Language (WSDL))

Finding standard ways of communicating and presenting information was (and remains to be) a vital ingredient for the success of online communications. Interoperability is the main driver behind effective web services. In the past, services such as Tradacoms and Edifact took early steps to provide consistent ways of presenting information for use between differing application providers then the arrival of XML coupled with SOAP and REST provided the mechanisms that were needed to cross over from specialised areas into the mainstream. These methods use a common terminology in order to operate and this is called a web service definition language.

23. Extensible Mark-up Language (XML)

Probably the single most important enabler of Web 2.0 developments was finding a way of presenting textual data consistently and usefully. Historically, data was tied up with complicated and disparate formatting – freeing it up makes the data much more versatile. A good introduction to XML can be found at XML Introduction – What is XML?

24. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

As important as XML but slightly less formalised is cascading style sheets that allow data to be presented in a multitude of ways. Data can now be presented in varying formats without changing the data itself. Web sites can take on a number of themes and CSS also helps areas such as accessibility as the mechanism allows web sites to be viewed differently depending upon their context.

25. Mash Ups, Aggregators and Remixability

Mash Ups are sites that collect related information and present them in a uniform way. Mash Ups depend a lot on keywords, tag and remixability. Remixability is the most complex as it requires some upfront work by the content creator. When writing a post, recording a podcast, a Vidcast, or a slide presentation you need to think about the ways in which your information could be used beyond its initial intention. If for example you make a Blog post and it contains three different discussions then it will make it hard to re-use that information effectively, whereas thre
e different blog posts with separated keywords dramatically improves the remixability of the information. Aggregators bring together information and consolidate it making it easier to find and search.

26. Asynchronous Java and XML (Ajax)

Not really a technology by itself Ajax is a group of technologies working together including XHTML and JavaScript. Not necessarily a show stopper but a big frustration with browsers was always the need to refresh the entire page when submitting or receiving information often causing a refresh and complete page redraw which can cause an annoying flicker on the screen. One of the popular features of Ajax (Asynchronous Java and XML) is that only parts of a web page can be redrawn without affecting other parts. With this functionality pages often have a feeling of being more responsive. There are alternatives to Ajax including Flash, the soon to be JavaFX, new Silverlight, and possibly even Adobe Air.

27. XHTML and micro formats

Extensible HTML which extends HTML but conforms more closely to XML standards offers a viable alternative to HTML. XHTML allows the creation of micro-formats or subsets of XHTML for specific purposes. XHTML Friends Network (XFN) is a micro format that reuses the “rel” tag in anchor links to allows links to contain relational information, for example if a link leads to a colleagues Blog.

28. Software as a Service (SaaS)

Historically, software was required to be both purchased and installed locally on a suitably specified computer in order to operate leading to complex licensing issues and copy protection challenges. Increases in bandwidth availability and back-end improvements by Internet providers now allows for a much thinner infrastructure which allows software to be operated directly via the Internet. Early adopters of this technology were thin client providers offering the Application Service Provider model allowing a remote window into a server. Recent developments such as Google Office allow software to be used in a browser window. One of the drawbacks of SaaS has often been the requirement for an online connection, however, offline cached services are emerging to address this.

To be continued…

Coming in Part 3… Considerations and the Future

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If you like this article you may also like:

42 things about Web 2.0 in 2008, part 1 of 3

42 ways to enhance and improve your network

For a little light relief try:

Monk and his I.T. Junk – an online technology cartoon

The Daily Notion – a crazy (and sometimes not so crazy) notion for the day

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