Definte Web 2.0, I dare you.

A few weeks ago, I put out a request for people to post their top three Web 2.0 sites that they use in education. I declined to define Web 2.0 because I didn’t want that to get in the way of people identifying the sites that they found worthwhile. I figured that I could always filter things down myself, and I have been. However, it wasn’t until I read Miguel’s post Nature of 2.0 that I really got a handle on what defines a Web 2.0 site to me.

Miguel links to two great visual aids that help to define the term. The first is the following video on YouTube:

The second is the following graphic that originally came from Harold Jarche.

Miguel goes into some serious commentary about what defines Web 2.0 and what that means for schools, and is very worth reading. I’m going to take a much more simple approach. Essentially I’m not looking at 2.0 as a movement, more as a classification.

I consider a website to fall under the ‘2.0′ category if it is entirely web based (sorry Google Earth and Skype), is focused on content over form, supports pull technology, and emphasizes social networking in some respect. It’s a little unfortunate, because I’d really like to include Skype in the presentation (and I still might anyway), but until it can function without a local client, I don’t think it quite fits ‘2.0′.

With that in mind, there were some very clear winners in the voting, and some borderline cases. To be honest, what surprised me the most was that the site that got the most votes by far was (drumroll please….) del.icio.us.

I don’t want to read too much into it, after all this was just a brief informal little poll of sorts, but what I really think it shows is how difficult it is to assimilate all the information we encounter on a daily basis, and that a site like del.icio.us not only helps us organize things, but it also helps us see how other people do the same and how many other people have found that site worth keeping tabs on. In some sense, it helps us gauge the ‘importance’ of a site to the masses I guess. I know, I know, just because a lot of people have bookmarked it, doesn’t make it a ‘quality site’, but it does help provide some info at least. As I said, it was far and away the most popular choice of the people who answered. Go figure.

5 Comments

Miguel Guhlin
2/5/2007

Actually, I’m pretty impressed by the “How to Fold a Shirt Site;” it’s a valuable life-skill, as or more important than using Del.icio.us to organize your virtual life!

Steve, are you going to be in Texas for TCEA?

Aaron Smith
2/5/2007

My goodness… that video is so awesome, it defies words.

Bing Miller
2/5/2007

Steve, thanks for directing me to that graphic. Sometimes it takes something as simple – and visually pleasing – as that to help us begin to understand complex things. This shift is more than a subtle repositioning.

I didn’t weigh in with my top three, as I’m still a relative newbie, but I have begun to use del.icio.us more as a search engine replacement when I’m looking for more advanced information. Still trying to figure out the best way to organize my bookmarks.

Thanks again.

John Finch
2/6/2007

The video is great. It sums up the power of the “new” web. One can only wonder what comes next in “web 3.0″

Marie Belt
2/19/2007

Hi!
I actually got a Del.icio.us account last year when I was at the DEN leadership conference…but didn’t really know what it was! I finally figured it out with the help of one of my fellow DEN-mates at school, and I really love it! Very useful.

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