And my computer once again dies at the most inopportune time….
Yes, it seems my computer is always plagued with misfortune. All I did was move my speaker and now my monitor dies! Hell, I’d be adamant about moving ….. if it weren’t for the fact that the tech guys say they switched out my physical computer three times already! What’s up with that?
Well, my notes on this last presentation were ON said computer and went unsaved, so ….. yeah. Hell, I thought it’d be a big time-saver, just typing my notes straight away on the comp. BAH! So. From memory now.
So, this presentation was on Web 2.0. Web 1.0 was, basically, authoritative content only. The idea being that new media tends to emulate what came immediately before it (TV were early radio dramas, movies being more like TV serials, etc.). Web 2.0 tends to focus on user-created content.
The dude talked a lot about blogs and YouTube. Those to get one paragraph in this little entry because everyone already knows what I’m talking about.
But he did introduce the importance of tags and the idea that people are innately attuned to pick up on what words are important. An example he gave being the word “Katrina” being used as a tag word within hours of hurricane Katrina being big news. However, it seems to me like tags may go the way of keywords eventually. They seem to serve the same purpose. I think eventually it might end up working exactly like keywords.
Vlogging was mentioned as something newer though. As was …. “audio-blogging”, whatever the real word for that is. From memory, remember? Anyhow, there’s that too out there.
He talked a lot about this site called “Second Life” which seems really cool though. You get to make your own little avatar and buy land. It seems neat, but buying simulated land seems a bit backwards. Or maybe it doesn’t. But it’s a very neat idea and skirts the entire concept of cyberspace. Like all those old TV shows where the character goes inside the TV – that’s what it looks like to me. Reminds me of the World of Warcraft ….. except I don’t play that game (but my Dad does …. Ironic, no?).
Although his lecture went on for a bit longer, I think the basic gist of it is this: user-created content is the future. Of course that does sort of create an odd bit of circular logic, doesn’t it?
I mean ….. sites like You Tube and MySpace (woops! I mean WordPress!) are considered prime examples of Web2.0. Because they are the pinnacle of user-created content. HOWEVER, each one has it’s own sense of suthoritative content that makes it a success. And I can’t help but think it’s not as new as It seems.
People on YouTube often “spam” it to get their own personal spaces featured more. I use You Tube mainly to watch amine …. And I often see spoofing going on (where people put their music videos of, say, Naruto, under “Naruto 119” when it is NOT episode 119 of Naruto). Also, even though MySpace ITSELF is non-authoritative it’s blogs ARE. Because you’re just reading my rants and ravings.
So, if I have a Deviant Art account, how is that different from a personal Webpage? And if I have a blog, how is that different from a personal web space with a comments feature? I guess the idea is that I make the NEXT Myspace or something. I mean blogs in and of themselves are authoritative.
Wikipedia annoys me a bit too, now that we’re on the Web 2.0 subject. Man, I wrote my own bit of info on a game called “Rockman Strategy” ….. I’m the ONLY guy who tracked down the game out of my OWN curiosity …. and I took the game apart to get all the (important) graphics ….. I’m the very first to have any real information about it in the entire world …. And the Wikipedia kids rip me off. Constantly. The admins at Wikipedia sided with me, and that’s to the credit of the site, but the kids that like to add it it make it seem like a prime example of the potential abuse of the whole Web 2.0 movement. You might write something and get ripped off …. Nobody can prove your intellectual property is yours. Well, that’s where Archive.org comes in handy, eh?
Still, Wikis are still a good example of Web 2.0, even though they annoy.
I suppose I have a hard time differentiating Web 2.0 from sites like Geocities. Geocities has a site builder that lets users create their own site. So did Homesite. And a few others. So how is that NOT Web 2.0?? Granted, Second Life is MUCH better and, really … amazing. But Geocities lets you create your own content. Maybe that’s early Web 2.0?
I guess what would come in more handy would be online programs like Geocities web builder. Only not crappy like Geocities web builder. And that, I guess, is the appeal of blogs and you tube and Wikipedia. No HTML worries, no design worries …. It’s really done all for you already. All you do is pump words into it. Or videos. Whatever.
So, Web 2.0. Wave of the future!
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