Ever since the concept of Web 2.0 was coined during a brainstorming session between Tim O?Reilly and Dale Dougherty at the Web 2.0 conference in 2004 (), it has gone on to become the biggest buzz within the business and IT community, making its debut on the front of popular magazines such as Time () and Newsweek (), journals, newspaper articles, conferences and various other sources. All of which has subsequently resulted in the flooding of the market with Web 2.0 technologies, as well as having everyone within the business and IT community scrambling to jump on board the perceived Web 2.0 bandwagon.
The reason for this confusion can be put down to the fact that currently a general consensus on what exactly constitutes Web 2.0 has not yet been reached, making its definition as difficult as a Greek puzzle. Nevertheless, through the careful comparison and contrasting of the various definitions of Web 2.0 available today, by several credible sources such as Tim O?Rielly (), Paul Anderson (), Daniel Lewis (), Christopher Barnatt () and various other sources. It can clearly be seen that despite their differences in definitions, they are all in agreement that Web 2.0 involves making new and improved forms of online connections between:
Two or more people.
Two or more online services.
Individual users and software applications.
The identification of these three types of connections of Web 2.0 is very important as it enables the effective isolation of the three key aspects of Web 2.0, namely:
Interpersonal Computing
Web Services
Software as a service (SaaS)
Interpersonal computing refers to the use of online technology in order to connect people to each other in social networks or business teams. The key interpersonal computing aspects of Web 2.0 are therefore things like social networking sites, wikis, blogs and online videos. Examples of these include Facebook and Linkedin for social networking, Wikipedia, blog creation sites like Blogger and Wordpress and video hosting sites including YouTube and Hulu. All of which allow anybody to add as well as access content, leave messages and comments, and exchange digital media including photographs, music and video.
Web services refer to components of online functionality that can be joined together in order to form an integrated online offering or mashup. A good example of this is the use of payment service providers such as PayPal by online businesses such as Amazon and eBay, in order to allow them to take credit card payments easily, which results in customers interacting with two organizations which are automatically linked via the internet.
The final key aspect of Web 2.0 is software as a service, this involves application functionality being offered directly over the internet, in turn user data and applications can then be accessed from any internet enabled computing device. Examples of this are Google docs and Zoho, which offer free online word processing, spread sheet, presentation and project management packages over the Web.
Therefore, from the information above it can be concluded that Web 2.0 can be defined as simply being the 2nd generation of Web development and design, encompassing a great number of new ideas, technologies, communities, and services.
This means that whereas the first generation also known as Web 1.0 was about using the internet as a simple means of retrieving information. Web 2.0 is instead about using the internet as an interactive platform upon which to collaborate, develop, share, and operate simultaneously through the use of its various tools and technologies.
Bearing this in mind, this article seeks to investigate and quantify the impact that Web 2.0 tools and technologies have had on business, and it aims to achieve this through the use of the information above as a basis and by ensuring the following objectives are met:
Identifying the most effective Web 2.0 tools and technologies that are available to business organizations.
Critically analysing the Web 2.0 tools and technologies available to business organizations.
Quantifying and analysing the Impact that Web 2.0 tools and technologies have had on business organizations.
Evaluating the impact the impact of Web 2.0 tools and technologies on business.
Methodology
Identification of Web 2.0 tools and technologies for business
In today?s business world, a stir of innovative activity has been created as a result of the hype surrounding Web 2.0, this has subsequently resulted in a rush by business organizations to figure out how to effectively utilize the available Web 2.0 tools and technologies in order to create a richer ?online experience? for their customers/clients and thus expand their brands, products, and influence.
Currently, although Web 2.0 consists of various tools and technologies not all of them are considered useful to business organizations. However, after carefully examining the results obtained from various studies and surveys conducted on business organizations in regards to their utilization of Web 2.0 technologies such as Donston (2008, pp.48), Andriole (2010, pp.67-69) and Mckinsey and Co(2007, pp.5). The following Web 2.0 tools and technologies were identified as being the most useful ones for business organizations to utilize, in order to help them create a richer ?online experience? for their customers/clients, namely:
Blogs
RSS
Wikis
Mashups
Podcasts
Social Networking Sites
Tagging and Social Bookmarking
Viral Video sites
Widgets
Blogs or "web logs" as they are also known as are journal-style websites that are created and maintained by either individuals or organizations who are commonly referred to as ?bloggers?. They cover a wide variety of topics known as ?blog postings?, which consist of simple text, photos, images, links, audio and videos, ?blog postings? encourage inter-blog dialogue through allowing for users/readers to comment on them and through the use of permanent links, or "permalinks," which allow other ?bloggers? and Web site owners to link directly to them. ()
Examples of successful utilization of Blogs by business organizations include the American Cancer Society's (ACS) blog FISpace which aims to discuss new technologies, new science, new communication tools, social change, fundraising trends, and volunteerism. () and Ideastorm by Dell which provides its existing and potential customers with information on its current and upcoming products, and allows them to contribute to innovation.()
However, it is also important to note that currently interest is now also growing in "micro blogging", which is based on ?blog postings? of no more than 140 characters in length, which can be accessed from both the web and mobile phones such as is available on Twitter for example.()
RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication is a Web 2.0 technology that allows users to have headlines and updates from their favourite websites delivered directly to their desktops without even having to open their web browsers and visit any of the websites. It achieves this through the use of an aggregator, which is software that when downloaded, installed and customized by a user delivers their specified content directly to their desktop.
Examples of business organizations which have effectively utilized RSS include the BBC whose RSS feed can be subscribed to and customized by users in order to enable them to receive updates of their specified news content i.e. sports, business, technology etc. and the Disney ABC Cable Networks Group which uses its RSS to avoid the overload of "occupational spam" and to provide employees with live information with links to the original internal reports. ()
Wikis refer to websites that allow users to easily add, remove and edit content, hence enabling the collaborative authorship of comprehensive documents. Examples of wikis include the very popular, external, multi-lingual, web-based encyclopaedia Wikipedia, which currently includes over two million articles.() and the two internal wikis developed by the Nokia Research Centre in Helsinki in order to enable them to collaborate on solving product-design problems and to explore alternatives to e-mail and collaborative software.(Carlin, 2007)
Mashups refer to the combination of tools and data from one or more online sources into an integrated new whole one, using technologies such as RSS and AJAX, and an example of its successful utilization by busines organizations include the embedding of Bing maps and the London underground map by the real estate company Oliver Burn in its website in order to provide its customers with a better understanding of where the property they are viewing is located and how to get directions to it, and also keep them from navigating away from their website in order to access this secondary information.
Podcasts refer to digital recordings of multimedia programmes that are delivered over the Internet to subscribers via an RSS feed and are designed for download and playback on computers or portable digital players, such as iPods, an example of business organizations that have effectively utilized podcasting include GM Fastlane, an audio blog produced by General Motors which seeks to inform its employees, stakeholders and prospective clients about its cars () and Windows Weekly, which is a weekly podcast that looks at all things related to Microsoft Windows . ()
Social Networking Sites refer to websites that enable people to build social networks online. Groups established within such communities are usually fostered around existing friendships, interests, teams and activities, and facilitated by online tools for sending individual messages, file sharing, discussion forums, and online chat. () Examples of business that have successfully utilized social networking sites include the electronics retailer Best Buy which has built an exemplary internal social networking site called BlueShirt Nation which is effectively used by its hundred thousand or so employees who work at the retail floors as a knowledge transfer tool i.e. for swapping ideas on how to display products or handle customer complaints etc. and another example of business organizations that have successfully utilized social networking sites is the setting up of a Facebook-based recruitment programme by the professional services firm Ernst & Young, which allows them to interact directly with potential recruits who it has discovered mainly use the social networking site Facebook ()
Tagging and Social bookmarking are related to social networking and consists of the social networking sites allowing users to save links to web pages that they want to remember and to share with others, by using tags and a variety of other social bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us
For business organizations tags and social bookmarks are used as a great way to draw attention to their ?blog posts? and bring customers to their blog or Web site.
Viral Video sites refer to websites that allow users to post videos on them and subsequently receive feedback from comments left by other users and by the Viral Video Sites themselves which can produce certain valuable statistics such as how many views the video has had for instance, for most business organizations Viral Videos Sites are most commonly used as a marketing tool, in that they are used to showcase the organizations advertisements.
Widgets, also known as gadgets, are small pieces of reusable code that can be implemented without the need for additional programming or additional development input inside another website. Examples of business organizations that have successfully utilized widgets are Google who have developed various widgets known as Google Gadgets, all of which are freely available and can provide various benefits to users such as allowing them to customize their websites or desktops and thus receive the information they require directly without the need for navigating to the different websites, much like with RSS.
Analysis of Web 2.0 tools and technologies
From the information above it can be seen that in today?s business world, regardless of the size and sector that business organizations operate in, they must effectively utilize the Web 2.0 tools and technologies identified above if they are to ensure their success.
This is due to the fact that the Web 2.0 tools and technologies identified above have been found to offer four major benefits to business organizations, the first of which is improved communication and collaboration within all of the its major areas of operation, namely; internally among its employees and externally with its customers and business partners, and this benefits them by ensuring that all the information and knowledge that is crucial to their success is transferred as effectively as possible.
Second, their cost effectiveness, which refers to the fact that most of them are freely available which in turn means that their implementation costs business organizations nothing, thus they have nothing to ?lose? and ?everything? to gain in terms of investing in them.
Third, innovation without permission, which refers to the fact that they can deployed with great ease, speed and no technical permission from the IT department or whoever is in charge of their IT operations, thus resulting in increased efficiency and productivity within the company due to a removal of the bureaucracy that is normally involved with implementing IT tools and technology and the fact that they can be customized to meet specific user requirements.
Finally the fourth benefit is digital democracy, which refers to the fact that it is able to ensure the free flow of information and expression of ideas by individuals without fear of repression, which is very beneficial to business organizations because it ensures that all of the information they receive is valid.
However, bearing in mind that there are two sides to a coin, it is important to note that despite their benefits Web 2.0 tools and technologies are not without drawbacks.
These consists of first and fore mostly security issues, which refers to the fact that because Web 2.0 tools and technologies are freely available for download and customization (open source), they have very little security measures in place which is very dangerous for business organizations who are required to entrust them with their confidential information if they want to succeed.
Secondly, its dependency issue, which refers to the fact that it relies solely on an internet connection and thus without a working internet connection is rendered useless to the business organization.
Thirdly, legal/economic issues, which refers to the fact that it is based on free file sharing, but does not take into consideration copyright and intellectual property issues or how profit can be generated if everything is freely available and distributed.
Finally, perception, which refers to the fact that a large majority of the business and IT community still consider it merely a buzzword or a fad, and like all fads, believe it will lose popularity as quickly as it gained it, therefore they are very apprehensive about investing in it.
Results
Conclusion
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