Web 2.0? Or Is It More Like Web 16.0?

Author : Stone Julian


It has become difficult to keep up with the meanings of all the new phrases and terms generated by modern technology. One of the most commonly used phrases on the world wide web (www) today is "Web 2.0." It seems like every web solutions company is using this phrase to sell its stuff. So to the average Joe who's not a geek, what is "Web 2.0"?

Well according to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia…

"[T]he phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies [collaborative tagging schemes] — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. According to Tim O'Reilly, 'Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.' Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of 'Web 2.0' have existed since the early days of the W!
eb."

There is no doubt the www has advanced significantly since inception, but there really is no new version of the www. It is simply much more useful to the everyday person.

However, if we counted each major innovation as a whole number and each minor revision as a tenth, we would already be into double digits. So why are we calling it "Web 2.0"?

If you have seen the latest Die Hard movie, or ever bought software for your computer, you will understand why we are not in Web 2.0. Even if we call it Die Hard 4.0 or MS Office 2007, it's still basically the same movie or tool. So what we are really experiencing now is more like Web 16.0.

If you have an in-depth, honest conversation with your web designers, they will tell you that Web 2.0 is a myth. So to explain how we got to Web 16.0, here's a history of the most significant events on the www.

WEB 0.1 -- 1958 – SAGE – Radar systems are first networked
WEB 0.2 -- 1960 – Packet switching is first created

WEB 1.0 – EMAIL – "A New Way to Send Unsolicited Mail Is Born"

Although the exact history of Email is a tad murky, it is generally accepted that it appeared in 1965, and was created so that people accessing a mainframe could communicate with each other. This was the first step in the interconnection of people, facilitating almost instant communication at no cost to the user.

WEB 1.1 -- 1967 – Markup language is created
WEB 1.2 -- 1969 – ARPA – A link is established between computers
WEB 1.3 -- 1696 – ARPA Net – First packet-switched network created

WEB 2.0 – WYSIWYG – "What You See Is What You Get (sometimes)"

With the invention of WYSIWYG in 1970, users could now be presented with a basic display of what their finished product would look like, as they were working on it. This removed the need to memorize complex code.

WEB 2.1 -- 1970 – ASP – First Application Service Provider (SAAS)
WEB 2.2 -- 1970 – Style sheets are created
WEB 2.3 -- 1971 – @ is created to separate hosts and users
WEB 2.4 -- 1973 – TCP/IP is created to simplify networking
WEB 2.5 -- 1973 – First connection to another country established
WEB 2.6 -- 1974 – The term "Internet" is adopted
WEB 2.7 -- 1976 – X.25 – The first network standard is approved
WEB 2.8 -- 1978 – International packet switching service created

WEB 3.0 – USENET– "The Black Market of the Internet"

Usenet was established in 1980 to offer mail and file transfers as well as give personal users access to news. Usenet is in fact a large network of servers all in communication with each other; a user posts something to the local server and that item is passed along to the other servers. Usenet was a major turning point because users could finally have an open conversation with anyone on the net, without needing to specifically know the user (unlike Email). The downside is that with a sometimes un-policed net capable of file transfers, the Usenet of today is a haven for piracy of all types, where anything you can imagine is accessible.