What is Web 2.0?

Hello I am Beth Tribe, Coordinator of Software Support and Training for Howard County Library.

Although Ive been conducting training for the staff of Howard County Library for several years this is my first class for the public.

There are a few staff members here tonight and if you ask them there is at least one thing Im known for in training CHOCOLATE.

All training should have learning goals. My goals for this class are at the end of tonight you will:

have some fun and chocolate

have been exposed to at least one new thing that you didnt know before you walked into this room

had Web 2.0 demystified for you

a curiosity ignited in you to explore YOUR web

My inspiration for doing this class came when I took part in 23 Things, a program that all of the public libraries in the state of Maryland participated in.

23 Things was based on Learning 2.0 a program designed by Helene Blowers, formerly of the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Public Library in North Carolina.

Learning 2.0 was designed to introduce library staff to the wonderful world of web 2.0 (one thing or one web 2.0 activity at a time).

23 Things was about learning through exploring, through play. Up until that point many of us hadnt used many web 2.0 sites or if we were using them we didnt really understand what it was all about. We learned that we could add to the web, we learned to participate, to interact and to connect.

The World has changed
The Web has changed

The more and more I explored the Web 2.0 world the more I realized how much the web had changed in a few short years.

Before 2004 most of us hadnt really heard of such phrases as web 2.0 - blogs wikis social networking podcasting.

Just a few years ago the web was static, passive, one-way communication. It lacked a way for the common man (someone without programming experience) to interact, participate, collaborate, contribute..

That has all changed!

Those words we hadnt heard a few years ago have become more and more a part of the vocabulary. Most of us have probably heard of YouTube or the word blog.

The web has definitely changed but change can be scary or at the least overwhelming.

These are just a small sampling of sites that are considered Web 2.0

In a few minutes I will demo some of these sites. I hope you find one or two that will appeal to you, that speaks to you, and hopefully inspire YOU to contribute, participate or at the very least connect and be a part of YOUR web.

Many people refer to this list of words when trying to describe Web 2.0. It is a pretty scary bunch of words if you arent familiar with them or you dont see yourself as a techie.

That is one of the beauties of Web 2.0 you do not have to be a techie. You dont have to know HTML, CSS, XML, PHP, Ajax, or any other of the gazillion programming languages out there. You just need to be ...

....YOU. This is a big change because -

Gone are the days of only being able to contributed to the web if you had a degree in computer science or had spent years hacking away on a computer in your parents basement.

Gone are the days of the only the expert, only the computer geek, only the web designer being the only ones able to shape and mold what is on the web. They are still around but their roles have changed too.

Just as it says on the cover of Time, YOU control the information.

The web is now about:

connecting contributing -participatingby anyone.

Web 2.0 is peer to peer. Web 2.0 is about YOU the user.

Anyone, yes, even YOU can contribute to the content, the information, the data that is on the web. Dont worry it isnt as scary as it sounds.

Without me revealing the definitions here can I have a show of hands

how many people feel when they are on the web they fall under the inactive category? Spectators? Joiners? Collectors? Critics? Creators?

Many people see themselves as inactives.

show of hands has anyone watched a video on YouTube that was sent to you via email?

show of hands anyone ever read a review of a product they were contemplating purchasing?

Guess what? You are spectators!

Show of hands anyone have an acct with MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Classmates.com, LibraryThing, Flickr, YouTube

You are Joiners

If you subscribe to RSS feeds or add tags to photos or on web sites you are Collectors

Do you Comment? Write reviews? Or post ratings? You are a critic.

Do you blog? Upload videos or pictures? Or music? YOU are a creator.

If you do any of these things YOU are using Web 2.0 to contribute, participate and interact.

Okay, so if you arent dont have a YouTube or Flickr account and you dont blog - just how can you contribute, connect or participate (if you wanted to)?

Start small and with something that means something to YOU, something that will reflect YOU, something that effects YOU.

Take baby steps..

Two of the most basic and important keystones of Web 2.0 are tags and comments.

Tag- is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information. This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching.

In plain English tags are words that mean something to YOU the user.

Lets try an experiment take a few moments to look at the next picture.

If you had to tag this picture what words would YOU use? No wrong answers:

summer spring green grass trees outside leaves, sunshine, sun, shade, shadows, path, walk, park, calm serene, beautiful, peaceful

The more tags you add the more chances other people will be able to find it too. But dont forget that tagging is about YOU. Its personal this picture says one thing to me and another thing to YOU and both of us are right.

So next time you are on a web site and they have the capability to tag go ahead. Tag something that means something to YOU. Youll find that You as well as others will be able to find that site, that picture, that blog, that video because YOU tagged it. You contributed to the web.

Baby steps.

Tagging helps when searching. If a site allows tagging using the search feature on that site will display results that match your search term. Explore the tags or the search results YOU never know what you might stumble upon.

E.G. If I wanted to know how many blogs on Wordpress have the phrase Web 2.0 tagged

Another baby step Comments. They are a way to not only add content to the web but a way to communicate, interact, participate.

Comments are a way for YOU, whether or not you know the author, to communicate with them to connect with them. Comments allow you to voice an opinion to participate in a discussion (if it differs from the original content) to be a part of the Web.

An example of how comments can work Howard County Librarys very own blog Highly Recommended.

Here a customer commented on the authors post about this particular book. This gave the author an opportunity to come back and let the customer know that there is book discussion about that title going on at the library.

One might ask how would I know that there is a response after I leave a comment? Another example of Web 2.0 the RSS feed right on the page.

This symbol or the letters RSS on a site you are visiting means you can subscribe to the content they put there. This means you dont have to keep coming back and checking if anything new has been added (content or comment wise). Instead the information will come to you via an RSS Feed.

You will need a way to receive the feed easiest thing to do is use your browser. Most browsers now have built in ways to subscribe to feeds. There are other ways and Ive included them in the handout that you can take home with you.

Tagging, commenting (and receiving RSS feeds) are just small baby steps that let you communicate, participate, contribute and even connect on the web.

There are many bigger, better, and fun ways to add to YOUR web.
Remember Web 2.0 is about YOU about participation, contribution, connection.

Now lets explore some of those Web 2.0 sites - In order to demo the widest range of web 2.0 sites Ill ask that you save any questions until the end (Ill leave time for questions).

Slide 1 - http://www.goammedia.net/Slide 2 - http://www.somewhatfrank.com/2006/03/web_20_complian.htmlSlide 3 - http://flickr.com/photos/lwr/100385570/Slide 4 - http://wizag.com/Slide 5 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/xohklee/46302591/sizes/m/Slide 6 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiaobi/172320206/Slide 7 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/25018542@N06/2361301864/Slide 8 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/53752777@N00/849407765/Slide 9 - http://www.vdtg.com/profile_main.htmSlide 10 & 11 - http://leighhimel.blogspot.com/2008/08/corporate-participation-ladder.htmlSlide 12 - http://practicingtechnology.blogspot.com/2007/06/eight-redwood-writing-project-teacher.htmlSlide 13 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adulau/2124178869/Slide 14 - http://www.designecofutura.com/contact.htmlSlide 15 http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/245887/taggingexperimentSlide 16 http://en.search.wordpress.com/?q=web+2.0Slide 17 - http://www.welie.com/patterns/showPattern.php?patternID=comment-boxSlide 18 http://www.hclibrary.org/highlyrecommended/?p=234Slide 19 - http://www.thorlabs.com/feeds.cfmSlide 20 - http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/245968/web2.0sites