Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is not a new technology; the term is used to describe a new way of using the WWW, in an interactive and collaborative manner. Tim Berners-Lee describes his story of developing the web in his book weaving the web, in which he explains how he was creating a way to share information. When the web first began in the 90s it was much more difficult to write then to read this information. Writing required technical know how, the ability to use html and the use of a web server, which were not common at the time.  The majority of people used the web as a way of receiving information, but only a few were creating it.

Online services such as Facebook, Twitter and wikipedia, the forefront of Web 2.0 have led to a dramatic shift in these figures. Anyone can now have an online voice, with very little effort or technical ability, and for free. This voice isn’t just limited to sharing words, but also images, video, music and links.

The Internet has become the platform from which we work rather than the computer, which is now a gateway to the Web. This means that whichever type of computer we use our experience is very similar, and format problems are diminishing, allowing us to network widely and easily. These networks have created a new kind of social space, which improve as more people join, increasing the amount of connected information. The effect is a rich user experience and participation of dynamic content.

Although Web 2.0 has dramatically changed how society interacts and accesses knowledge, these changes are not always viewed as positive and have led to a number of controversies. We discussed three of these issues within our lab session.

1)   Facebook vs Friends reunited

2)   How much would you pay for the encyclopaedia Britannica

3)   Facebook privacy

Some interesting points have been raised on the discussion boards, in particular relating to Facebook privacy.

Re: Topic 3: Privacy on Facebook

by Christopher Loughnane - Wednesday, 26 October 2011, 08:55 PM

 

"We...are making ourselves more available, in vaster quantities. But in doing so, we are losing control over the information we considered to be ours alone. We have the convenience of online bill-paying. But credit cards companies know facts about us we never remember telling them. We have the ease of online shopping. Now online shops advertise to us long after we visited their site, wherever we happen to be on the Internet. We want to stay in touch with people we would have, in another age, left behind — people we met on holiday or on the street, people we knew only as children. So we post mundane, daily facts about our workday or our meals — information that used to disappear before it was even registered as experience — hoping that it might bring this giant network of people closer to our mundane, daily lives. But the mundane information starts to define us; we can’t get rid of it. What’s more, all these entities that we think of as being unrelated — the credit card companies, the social networking sites, the online markets — are talking about us to each other. And sometimes, when we’re not thinking about convenience, or the extraordinary wealth of knowledge at our fingertips, we think we might be in danger."

Privacy Policy
On the public commodification of privacy.
By Stefany Anne Golberg

Re: Topic 3: Privacy on Facebook

by Christopher Loughnane - Saturday, 29 October 2011, 04:30 PM

 

And don't forget our Google overlords:

"But all this is just the stuff that Google makes publicly searchable, or ‘universally accessible’. It’s only a small fraction of the information it actually possesses. I know that Google knows, because I’ve looked it up, that on 30 April 2011 at 4.33 p.m. I was at Willesden Junction station, travelling west. It knows where I was, as it knows where I am now, because like many millions of others I have an Android-powered smartphone with Google’s location service turned on. If you use the full range of its products, Google knows the identity of everyone you communicate with by email, instant messaging and phone, with a master list – accessible only by you, and by Google – of the people you contact most. If you use its products, Google knows the content of your emails and voicemail messages (a feature of Google Voice is that it transcribes messages and emails them to you, storing the text on Google servers indefinitely). If you find Google products compelling – and their promise of access-anywhere, conflagration and laptop-theft-proof document creation makes them quite compelling – Google knows the content of every document you write or spreadsheet you fiddle or presentation you construct. If as many Google-enabled robotic devices get installed as Google hopes, Google may soon know the contents of your fridge, your heart rate when you’re exercising, the weather outside your front door, the pattern of electricity use in your home.

"Google knows or has sought to know, and may increasingly seek to know, your credit card numbers, your purchasing history, your date of birth, your medical history, your reading habits, your taste in music, your interest or otherwise (thanks to your searching habits) in the First Intifada or the career of Audrey Hepburn or flights to Mexico or interest-free loans, or whatever you idly speculate about at 3.45 on a Wednesday afternoon. Here’s something: if you have an Android phone, Google can guess your home address, since that’s where your phone tends to be at night. I don’t mean that in theory some rogue Google employee could hack into your phone to find out where you sleep; I mean that Google, as a system, explicitly deduces where you live and openly logs it as ‘home address’ in its location service, to put beside the ‘work address’ where you spend the majority of your daytime hours."

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n19/daniel-soar/it-knows