Web 2.0 - 5 years on...

Web 2.0 is 5 years old.

Well, not yet, the concept is probably a wee bit older than the term "web 2.0" which first apparently arose from a brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International.

By my calculations the big-bad-hype version of web 2.0 is 5 years old TODAY. The concept of "web 2.0" wasn't even remotely new when it became big but it was picked up by the mainstream and actually started a conscious driving force about 5 years ago.

It was about 5 years ago that a lot of then unknown start-ups were just, well, starting out and venturing into the dinosaur riddled world of online. By my calculations Myspace was 5 in August, typepad is 5, del.icio.us is 5 and facebook along with flickr will be 5 in about 2 months time.

Coincidence?

No.

There is a very good reason for this timely coincidence, in late 2003 and early 2004 the internet was experiencing a boom like never before. Broadband penetration was, well, penetrating and users from all walks of life were engaging in social activities online, previously only the domain for IRC freaks and uber nerds, the internet was suddenly making sense to everyone. Programming languages were evolving toward easier development of large integrated scalable online applications. It clicked.

Happy birthday web 2.0, the name might be fading fast(finally) but the principles and foundations have paved the way for the next generation.

YouTube spreads their wings

Google has finally decided that it’s acquisition of YouTube should start bringing in the money. It was reported on Tuesday that YouTube will start to sell music and video games online and experiment with new advertising formats to increase revenue.

Investors have for a long time been nagging Google to get YouTube, which cost them nearly a £1 billion in 2006, to produce meaningful revenue.

Up to now YouTube’s main source of income was from advertising alone. Apparently they have already started experimenting with new formats to coincide with their future plans. Visitors will be able to watch a music video on YouTube and then be able to buy the actual song by clicking on a button close to the player.

One World, One Dream, Online

I am in China, 10 days before the games begin, and the buzz is beginning to start. Sure, I am in Shanghai, not Beijing, but still you can sense the excitement and pride in Shanghai, and we will be hosting the Olympic football matches after all.

In any case, it doesn't really matter where you are in the world, as this year the Olympic games will be more accessible than they have ever been before.

With the increased use of video streaming through sites such as YouTube, online consumers now somewhat expect videos to be available to them online, and they won't be disappointed with sites like NBCOlympics.com planning to stream at least 3,500 hours of video'd events online.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the BBC will allow users to watch live videos of the key action online, and to choose from seven video streams. Highlights of the best of each day will be available on demand of course.

In addition, citizen journalism we will allow us to see more than just what the broadcasters want us to see, via sites like YouTube and MySpace.

All this extra access is especially good news for those fans of minority sports, who will be able to more easily get their fix, without the 'only so many hours in a day' and 'popularity contest' problems of tv broadcasting.

P.s. here is a bit of Beijing Olympics trivia.

The Beijing Olympics mascots pictured at the top of this post are called Fuwa collectively. They represent the Olympic flame, and various Chinese animals.

When read together, their names make the sentence Beijing Huan Ying Ni...which means Beijing welcomes you.

The Rise and Rise of the World Wide Web

This is a topic that has been hotly debated both in the on and offline world, and since the World Wide Web has only recently celebrated its 15th birthday I thought it would be interesting to look into a couple of points that are often overlooked.

It’s widely accepted that the web is still very much in its infancy despite the phenomenal rate at which things like speed and accessibility have evolved.  Its hard to believe that it was only 10 years ago we were struggling to view basic websites, through a distinctly irregular dial-up connection – streaming online videos seemed a very long way off indeed. 

But now there seem to be more and more concerns over the social and economic implications of the internet than the actual technology itself.  We live in an age where people are not only existing in what is in effect a virtual world, but they are also working in this world as well.  Furthermore we are entering a world in which things like political battles live and die by their online manifestos and the most unpleasant of social implications, crime, is morphing into a all together more complex entity as a direct result of the changes in the way we live.

As with most things, the changes we are likely to see online are going to have both positive and negative implication on all our lives.  What do you think will be the most significant transformation of the world wide web in years to come?

You Tube adds Search Suggest

Neat feature shows other searches

Go to You Tube in the UK and type in a search query and as you type you will see othere suggested search terms and the number of results for each of these. Similar to the trail being run on Google labs on Suggest.

I really like this feature as not only can you quickly get to enter your search term, a bit like predictive text, but you also get to see how many results there are and maybe get some suggestions on searches you had not thought about.

So check out the search below for 'Wii' and you will see 'answers' for 'wii fit', 'wii sports', 'wii games' and so on!

Give it a try and see what you think, useful?

Flickr now includes video

Flickr, the Yahoo photo sharing company, will now be hosting homemade videos - or what they have dubbed "long photos" - in an attempt to lure users away from the dominant video sharing site YouTube.
It was only just launched but I have had a look at a couple of the videos posted on the Flickr Blog.  I would be interested to hear what others think of the service because while I was impressed by the image quality in comparison to Google's YouTube, I have to say it wasn't a quick experience with the video stopping to buffer up again fairly often.

In an attempt to keep all the videos home made and maybe to avoid copyright infringement, they have limited the length of the videos to 90 seconds.  I understand where they are coming from, but it is hard to compete with the market leader if you do not have a superior product. 

Neilson Online reports that 70 million people in the US watched 2.9 billion video clips.  Is no one doing any work anymore?? 

Microsoft finally opening up their Windows

It was only last month that we saw computing behemoth Microsoft receive yet another fine, for failing to adhere to EU laws regarding open source protocol.  This most recent penalty brings the total to a quite frankly staggering sum of €1.7 Billion, most certainly not your average slap on the wrist!  So will this most recent development finally signal a new era in Microsoft’s open source policy, or will its established culture and entrenched legacy prevent change.

We know that its not going to be easy, the culture of secrecy and modus operandi that renowned giants in Silicon Valley have carefully crafted throughout the 1990’s that prevented ‘fair’ competition and in effect monopolised the industry is systemic and runs deep into each companies make-up. 

However the ‘goal posts’ are being moved and now rather than eliminate competition, these companies are embracing opensource values.  Open collaboration has become inextricably linked with success in this ever more competitive arena, and surprisingly the rhetoric currently coming from Microsoft’s top brass certainly seems to be in agreement: “we have been through a 10 year battle and I don’t want it to turn into a 100 year war”.

But before developers world wide get too excited, the actually scale of this change is relatively small.  Yes there have been steps in the right direction, the most notable of which being Ray Ozzie appointed chief architect in place of Bill Gates.  Nevertheless the cultural cleavages associated with the old guard and the companies past dominance, are attributes that are very hard to break down – especially as taken 30 years for them to harden.  But as with all predictions, it will be left for time to decide the fate of Microsoft's willingness to embrace open source.

Blogging 101

Back in 1994 a student named Justin Hall thought it would be interesting to create an online journal, detailing his life at Swarthmore College.  Justin’s blog has since been widely regarded as one of the earliest personal blogs on the internet.  Since his ‘experiment’ the internet has become flooded with these online journals, 106 million and counting – that’s nearly one new blog every second.  We now not only have blogs on recognised subjects such as Sport, Technology and News but a bizarre glossary of blog sub-topics has been introduced to try and help describe the blogosphere.  We have ‘blaudience’ (the readership of blogs), ‘bleg’ (a blog asking for contributors), ‘moblog’ (blogging via your mobile phone), ‘glog’ (gonzo blog) and even a ‘gulog’ (dispirited blog), and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The creation of this seemingly over expanding parallel world has led to many online observers to be rather critical of the blogosphere, as the democratisation of the internet in many ways puts the unqualified remark on an equal footing with well researched empirical information.  This point can often be exacerbated with un-ethical SEO and pay for posts for example.  Whats more, post modern writers such as Jorge Borges, find it difficult to accept a coherent future when an infinite amount of information is being produced online: “the intellectual quality of what the crowd produces is very low”.   

However although reading blog posts by the like of Justin Hall are unlikely produce any earth shattering revolutions or make you take a step back and think “wow, I wish I had thought of that”, but they do serve a very important purpose.  With print sales falling, blogging has become a medium in which news papers and magazines can get closer to their readers.  In many ways the ‘common man’, can become a beacon of hope to thousands – we only have to look at the relationship between blogs and events such as the recent Tsunami or the revolt of the monks in Burma. This type of logic can be applied to the corporate world, never before has there been a chance for brands to communicate directly with their consumers and effectively listen in to conversations that would normally only be ‘heard over the garden fence’.

So where will it all end?  Many believe it will reach saturation point this year, with 200 million bloggers deciding to join Justin and sign off there blogs for good.   Personally I think as history has demonstrated in the past, this new medium will simply grow and evolve with the internet itself and as new applications are developed more and more uses will be found.   
 

Blogging made easy - part 2

It's test time on the voice recognition software

You may remember yesterday I posted a blog on some voice recognition software that allows users to dictate their entries into a mobile phone.

Following this post I received a call from Jonathan at SpinVox who offered to set me up with a trial of their service.

I am always up for something new so said yes and what you may be seeing soon is a quick test of their system.

I am going to dictate this exact post in its entirety via phone and see what comes out at the other end.

I am pretty excited about this and prepared to have several goes as I do speak too quickly anyway so if it does not work at first blame me!

Jonathan said there are generally three types of users of the service, and I am dumbing it down here, those who use it to post blogs in a hurry, those who post to draft and then edit at a later date and those who use it as a memo tool.

I am probably all three, but let’s try that post now.

Wish me luck!

Blogging made easy

Writing is so old fashioned!

When I write for this blog I do exactly that, write. But that could soon be, well is, a thing of the past if according to a report in the FT.

Voice recognition software being used at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas allows users to dictate their entries into a mobile phone. This information is then converted into text automatically and posted directly to a website - no hands or keyboards needed.

UK based SpinVox is a company which is offering this software right now as are US based Nuance. I have no idea how well they work but I am going to give it a go!

This could be really useful for those on the move as well as those like me who have no ability to multi task at conferences!

We know Google and Microsoft are interested in this type of service as both have a voice based directory in operation in the US.

I will let you know how I get on with this as soon as I have tried it! Watch this space!