THEgoodOne: TechTerm: Web 2.0

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004,refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. O'Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences, and since 2004 some technicians and marketers have adopted the catch-phrase. Its exact meaning remains open to debate, and some experts, notably Tim Berners Lee, have questioned whether the term has much meaning.The last, compact definition of Web 2.0, according to Tim O'Reilly is this one:

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called 'harnessing collective intelligence.')".

A Web 2.0 web-site may exhibit some basic characteristics. These might include:

"Network as platform" — delivering (and allowing users to use) applications entirely through a browser.
Users owning the data on the site and exercising control over that data.
An architecture of participation and democracy that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it. This is a sharp contrast to hierarchical access control in applications, in which users are categorized into roles with varying levels of functionality.
A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks.
Some social-networking aspects.
A Public good. "public goods" are characterized by two properties: jointness of supply and non-excludability.

The complex and evolving technology infrastructure of Web 2.0 can be best described by the adjoining figure.