The Second Wave
Web 2.0 represents a natural evolution in the development of web technologies, a second wave in an ocean of possible usages of communication technologies which began with the creation of the original Web 1.0 format.
Developed by the innovative coming-together of user platforms containing software applications, servers, powerful databases and other tools, Web 1.0 concepts were used to process public content on the World Wide Web. As the Web 1.0 technologies began to gel and include the input of more users, these platforms led to an exceptional way of processing information. Using both recursive loops and uni-directional styles of incremental changes to produce innovative new functions, this incarnation is more popularly known as Web 2.0.
The most intriguing aspect of Web 2.0 technologies, for me, is in its similarity to the neural structures and functioning of the human brain. In the Secret Life of the Brain, scientists describe how the human brain develops neural connections in response to stimuli; the more stimuli it is exposed to, the greater is the degree of neural development. Each neuron uses synaptic links to create millions of other associations which then employ a pruning process that gets rid of infrequently used connections while strengthening the useful links. This very individualized process results in a completely unique communications network in every single human brain. I believe we are in the process of creating a giant unified brain through the constant refinement and creation of web technologies that serve as a trigger stimulus for action and reaction.
Vitamin D Video
Web 2.0 represents a natural evolution in the development of web technologies, a second wave in an ocean of possible usages of communication technologies which began with the creation of the original Web 1.0 format.
Developed by the innovative coming-together of user platforms containing software applications, servers, powerful databases and other tools, Web 1.0 concepts were used to process public content on the World Wide Web. As the Web 1.0 technologies began to gel and include the input of more users, these platforms led to an exceptional way of processing information. Using both recursive loops and uni-directional styles of incremental changes to produce innovative new functions, this incarnation is more popularly known as Web 2.0.
The most intriguing aspect of Web 2.0 technologies, for me, is in its similarity to the neural structures and functioning of the human brain. In the Secret Life of the Brain, scientists describe how the human brain develops neural connections in response to stimuli; the more stimuli it is exposed to, the greater is the degree of neural development. Each neuron uses synaptic links to create millions of other associations which then employ a pruning process that gets rid of infrequently used connections while strengthening the useful links. This very individualized process results in a completely unique communications network in every single human brain. I believe we are in the process of creating a giant unified brain through the constant refinement and creation of web technologies that serve as a trigger stimulus for action and reaction.
Vitamin D Video
As a means of illustrating this idea, I would like to share with you a new software application from Numenta called Vitamin D Video, an application that allows users to track and locate specific people in videos, in much the same way that the human brain is able to perform the exact same task. The website for Vitamin D video states that the software is "based on a new computing paradigm modeled after the human neocortex." As you view the Vitamin D Video demo, imagine how you would look for a friend in a crowded place and try to judge whether you thing the processes are similar.
As we continue this analysis, let's look at Wikipedia, an online encyclopedic compilation of user generated information, where we can see parallels in how the brain develops and then apply that development strategy in our use of Web 2.0. For example, one aspect of learning theory (Bandura's sociocognitive theory) says that people learn through the observation of other’s actions, and in web 1.0 that is basically what we did. We viewed the works of others in a static environment and processed that information, such as our reading of the personal websites of individuals and corporations.
In second part of the Bandura learning process, people take in information, process the information and then develop fresh ideas in response to the new concepts that were created – this is akin to how we now learn by using the interactive features of web technologies, like blogging, social networking and Wikipedia. Web 1.0 began as subject postings on various topics that were created by users, and then these postings were expandec or refined by other users until it has now evolved from a static repository of information into that of a living, ever-changing knowledge base known as Web.2.0.
How do we use Web 2.0?
One general definition of Web 2.0 technologies comes from Harvard professor Andrew McKee and is known by the acronym, SLATES. SLATES stands for: Search, Links, Authorship, Tags, Extension, Signaling, and References.
Using theis template, we can see that the key component used to identify a Web 2.0 site is its interoperability, it interactiveness between the host and the user. Today's wide use of information sharing technologies, such as social networking and video-sharing sites, have made a significant impact on the private lives of users. Once a technology gains popularity from the masses, it soon begins to make inroads into the world of business and I predict, will soon be more strongly felt in the field of education.
As we have seen since the advent of new media technologies, the general pattern of distribution occurs with the production of a product by one innovative person or company; the product is then developed through the interactive uses by the public, and then the product is expanded and promoted by the corporate world to generate profit. Once it has a foothold in the corporate world, the technology or product then tends to find its way into education and government productions.
If we accept as true that humans are flexible living beings who are always involved in a continuous procession of learning, it then follows that web technology is also part of an emergent growth cycle, therefore, Web 2.0 must already be shifting towards a new definition of possibilities.
What do the experts say about the future development of web technologies?
Tim Berners-Lee, the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is credited with describing Web 1.0 as the read-only web, Web 2.0 as the read-write web and Web 3.0 as the read-write-execute web that may come into play in the near future. In this way, Berner-Lee emphasizes the flexibility of web technologies instead of rigid structure, and leads us to understand how the web develops by creating layers of technological advances that build upon the structures already in play.
Technical communications writer and educator Ken Ronkowitz describes Web 2.0 as “what the web is becoming,” a statement that implies the web will continue to change in response to interactive feedback from users and developers. These views support the idea of web development as an evolving, living form of intelligence in the beginning stages of development.
Technical expert and publisher Tim O’Reilly believes that the concept behind the term Web 2.0 represents a “gravitational core” of like ideas and believes that Web 2.0 is still adapting to both internal and external influences. O'Reilly discusses the future of computing as something very different from what we now understand as Web 2.0, by saying "for "Web 3.0" to be meaningful we'll need to see a serious discontinuity from the previous generation of technology." O'Reilly has developed his concept of Web 2.0 to include a "deeper understanding of the dynamics of increasing returns on the web," with the belief that "applications win if they get better the more people use them."
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