Web ?.0

(Originally posted April 15, 2012) 

This week's readings can be broken down into two sections: "Fundamentals of the Internet and World Wide Web," and the "Emergence of Web 2.0." Jeff Tyson's "How the Internet Infrastructure Works" and Rich Tebb's "Introduction to the Web as a Platform" (2007) provide an overview of the history and underlying structure of the internet and how end-users connect and interact with each other through web sites.

Though not new, addressing the topic was a bit of a refresher and reminded me of terms I had not used in 17 or 18 years. I remember the squawk created from dial-up modems (and the word "baud"). Upon entering college, was given a crash-course in accessing the internet when I was manually installed the Ethernet card in my desktop (which operated at 33-50 mhz with a pre-Pentium processor and had a whopping 500 MB of storage on the hard drive). From there, I read a five-paged sheet which explained how I created identified my computer and connected it to the school's Local Area Network (LAN). I had no idea as to what I was doing, but with a little trial and error, I figured it out.

Updates in computers and computing technology followed. From the Ethernet and dial-up modems to cable to wireless: new technology brought more complications. While the original issue may have involved the computer, modem, or phone connection, modern problems include (but are not exclusive to) the computer, the connection to the router (password for instance), the router itself, the connection to the cable line, or the cable provider. (Fortunately, computers can identify the source of the problem and offer solutions.)

Wireless computing is but one of the catalysts for Web 2.0. As the clocked counted down to Y2K, the Internet bubble burst and millionaires became insolvents overnight. Thirty years in the making, the internet blossomed from a government-run project geared towards defense and research purposes to a place where anyone with a connection could socialize, shop, conduct research, and, yes, even play games. While O'Reilly is promoting innovations, his angle is what struck me.

Maybe I'm a cynic, but in reading Tim O'Reilly (and John Battelle)'s articles on Web 2.0, I felt like someone was trying to sell me something. Sure enough, looking at O'Reilly's background, one learns he has been involved in tech marketing for over 30 years. So what's O'Reilly trying to sell? Reassurance. He wants the public and investors to feel optimistic about the future of the internet and technology related to it by pointing out its flexibility and growth potential through products like Facebook, Twitter, and Flckr. True enough, Apple has grown from a floundering company to the wealthiest corporation in the world--riding high on the promise and potential Web 2.0 offers.

Are libraries taking notice? Obviously. It's hard to find an institution which does not have at least a Facebook page for outreach purposes (though more aggressive organizations also make use of Twitter and the development of mobile apps.) So is O'Reilly right? Yes and no. There is not really much of an argument. Technology improves. It's innovation. It's not isolated to internet technology (cars, movies, and even light bulbs have made considerable advances). Labeling this change, Web 2.0, as something new is more of an advertising campaign to further separate the success of the current innovations from the dot-com bust.