cre84web – Website design and web based technologies

Web 2.0 is currently intended to refer to the web as a new platform built on the old paradigm. One on which software runs, services are hosted as well as provided, social media networks exist, video sharing, wikis, blogs etc. A place where users can directly and immediately interact with one another in a variety of ways. Again, I would ask how this is different from the natural organic evolution and initial intention of the web itself.

Web 2.0 was first coined or at least attributed to Darcy DiNucci in 1999. So for starters it is not the “current” term that most people think it to be. DiNucci stated in 1999, “The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens.” In short she was expressing the fact that the web was going to be a transformative way in which we were going to be exchanging information and engaging each other. All very true, but a lot more general observation than the current more specifically assigned meaning of web 2.0

The term did not resurface again until 2003/2004 when companies started 2.0 conferences speaking to the “new” web. Essentially it was used as a sales tool to fill seats of those interested in what flying cars we might all be driving in the new “yet to be unveiled” web of the future. Ah, you detect an air of cynicism…I would concur!

Tim Berners-Lee, the co-creator of the web (see “what is the difference between the web and the internet”) in 1989-90 described the term “Web 2.0″ as a “piece of jargon” he goes on to say, “Nobody really knows what it means…If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along.”

Already web 3.0 is being used, yes really! If we were really keeping track of the web as though it was a software version, we’d already be at web 32.2.1 by now!

My point is that Mr. Berners-Lee is right, it is simply another one of those buzz words that caught on, and people started catering to it in conferences, symposiums, books and blogs. Put simply, the web is a visual interface between two computers, one supplying information and the other requesting it. What information is available and how it can be presented and/or requested is a function of everything that is intrinsically “the web”.

The changes and growth of the web has been made possible as a result of the culmination of massive adoption by both individuals and organizations, the availability of high speed connections, computer monitor resolutions, CPUs, graphics cards, browsers keeping up with available technologies and coding practices, more complex tools being available to designers and developers, and so much more. The more external technologies like wireless and cellphones adopted web based applications and browser access, the more and more and more we could do. With time and adoption by users, the more expectations grew and the more those building the web were able to do.

If you remember, in the mid 90’s B2B was the next big thing, Business to Business websites. Put simply this is where a business builds a website for the sole purpose of selling to another business…hmmm? So let me get his right, a business commissions a web design company to build them a website that is intended to speak to their prospective clients…this is different from a regular site how? I am over simplifying this example a touch, but the premise is correct. It was simply an organization speaking to a desired audience in such a way that would appeal to that audience, and in a nutshell that is what the web is.

Much like humanity going from fire to the wheel to homogenized housing developments, the web grows organically as a result of everything that touches it.

My problem is the terminology, I am not a fan of buzz words that serve no purpose other than to line the pockets of those that peddle it, or to create a star struck glaze on the faces of those who don’t know any better. To be blunt it’s snake oil for the new millennium! Am I version 2.0 because I now need glasses? My needs changed, the optics were there and I adapted. It’s simple evolution at work here, yes you can track the growth/changes, but the base life form in this case is the same.

Web 2.0? Where did web 1.0 go? Did we have to move all our files to disc and reboot the entire web in order to see the new release on June 5th? No, we didn’t!

I don’t dislike the term web 2.0 simply because I am averse to kitschy catch phrases designed to draw attention, which admittedly I am. I dislike the term and it’s adoption because is fails to recognize just what the web is. The web is alive, it is a living breathing frankenstein. It is a sum of it’s parts and the imaginations of the millions of individuals and organizations who build on the work of each other every day. We have gone from text only exchanges between servers on green text screens to fully interactive and immersive tours of the new shoe release from nike complete with hollywood quality video from the it boy/girl of the day.

The web will be tomorrow what we the creators make it, and what the users flock to. What the users cast aside will die, what they adopt will be built upon. Facebook isn’t anything special, other than it has 300million members…oh yeah, I guess that makes it something special. Facebook without it’s enormous membership is just another website. Wikipedia with no users, Wiki wouldn’t be in the dictionary!

Web 2.0 negates the dynamic of the web. It makes it seem as though some big programing firm decided to create a very specific piece of software and the engineers simply went to work making it so. The web is the embodiment of millions of creative thinkers building and tweaking their creations. Users interacting with that content and designers watching in anticipation for the lessons they learn and creating the next thing and the next thing.

There is no web 2.0, or 3.0 etc. etc. there is just tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be able to do a little more, tomorrow the users will be looking for something that does things a little better or addresses a need that hasn’t been addressed or a need that doesn’t even exist yet. The web changes everyday, not just because some conference deems there to be a new version, but because of what the web intrinsically is.

Users and designers/developers working like a hive create the web together, that is simply the nature of the web and always will be each and everyday. That’s what got me into this field in the first place, it’s challenging, it changes everyday and it’s fun to be a part of that dynamic.