Week 3: The New Way to Web

 

"So wait. What year did that album come out? '04 or '05?"
"Uh, I dunno. Check Wikipedia."

The same conversation happens with different situations at least twice a day for the average curious citizen of the Web. The permeation of tools like social networking websites and wikis have culminated into something known as "Web 2.0." According to the article we read, the definition of this new platform is debatable, but can be is "read-write," as opposed to the read-only that gained popularity in the 1990s.  Instead of the Internet being something people merely dial onto and read, it is now something that is always on, always alert and always editable. This week's class covered an exploration of Web 2.0 and its effects on education (as well as us setting up our blogs to be used throughout the course). The fact that this isn't even the first class I've had to blog in (it's actually the third) in addition to maintaining two personal blogs with some consistency.

The journalism industry has been thriving under the Web 2.0 platform, having been plateauing within the print industry but booming on the Internet. Newspapers have moved online, blogs such as Mashable and TechCrunch have been regarded as legitimate news outlets for niche markets and social networking websites have done their fair share. For example, Twitter has positively cornered the market on what's known as "citizen journalism." This movement allows non-professionals to be able to document events that can be covered by the media from everything like civil unrest to the World Cup. Wikis that can be edited by anyone with access to do so(such as our class wiki) make collaborative efforts more effective, and the overall productivity of the media industry has improved tenfold.

I decided to go back in time and change my original link to something more current: the revolution in Egypt has been so heavily impacted by Twitter, I figured it needed to be addressed. The civil unrest in the country has been exacerbated by the government's attempt to block the social networking site since it was being used by civilians to rally their efforts. Access to information like this is how Web 2.0 is influencing the media, reporting and current events across the globe.


Sara Solano was the one who changed Justin Beiber's Wiki page to say he looked like squirrel in a blender.