What is Web 2.0

I've done a fair share of reading on this topic over the last few months. The thing that strikes me the most is that Web 2.0 is a melding of things. It is a meshing of Internet with productivity tools that are seemlessly updated. Look at gmail, you now have Google Calendar, Google Spreadsheet all within your e-mail interface. There are online word processors that you can use and many more applications that were once limited to the desktop only. Even Microsoft is getting into the game by creating an MS Office platform that is only available on the Internet with a monthly subscription.

However, Web 2.0 also does much more than this. Look at Wikipedia.com were the world community is "harnessing the collective intelligence." Everyon with a piece of the knowledge pie can contribute and one of the interesting things is that the Wikipedia community is self patrolling, verifying that content is genuine. Of course anyone can put any information they want on there, but if the info is false or in an other way not genuine, the communite polices itself.

There is even more than the collective intelligence, there is the collective wisdom imparted to the world through the blogsphere. If you actively partake in things such as bloglines.com or technorati.com you will see what I mean. The collective intelligence of all of society is out there, speaking voicing its opinion. Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes bad. However, through the Internet and blogsphere, you get to make an education decision or form an education opinion on things that matter most to you.

-Martin