Web 2.0

What is web 2.0?

“Co-creativity, participation and openness, represented by software that support, for example, wiki based ways of creating and accessing knowledge, social networking sites, blogging, tagging and ‘mash ups”

New Media: A Critical Introduction, p. 204

Tim O'Reilly is the person responsible for creating this new buzzword in 2003. Ever since then people have questioned what it is and where it came from.

Many new websites have come out of web 2.0, websites that don't just show opinion and fact, but have levels of interactivity. Websites such as Live Journal, Myspace, Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube etc. 

'Michael Platt offers the following five qualities as being defining characteristics of web 2.0:- 

• Network and devices as a platform;

• Data consumption and remixing from all sources including

user generated data;

• Continuous update;

• Rich and interactive UI; and

•

 Architecture of participation'

It is also about 'the importance of user ownership data' (Dion, 2006). 

Ever since web 2.0 has been on the scene, there has been a huge marketing hype. 

“Web 2.0 is a term you love to hate or hate to love but either way, you'll know you'll get  folk's attention by saying it.”

                                                                                                                                          (Hinchcliffe, 2006) 

“Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is, of course, a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along.”

Tim Berners-Lee (2006)

More and more user generated content is being produced now that web 2.0 is about. This can be in the form of blogs/vlogs, TV shows, music videos, articles etc. People are even becoming famous from it; Justin Bieber was found on YouTube by Usher and was then signed, and look at Bieber now! Wikipedia is also on that list. It is a online encyclopedia that anyone around the world can edit. The TV show The Million Pound Drop saw two contestants say Tom Jones was 90 plus, someone then changed his Wikipedia profile saying his new age. 

“Our idea was very radical: that every person on the planet would have access to an open-source, free online work that was the sum of all human knowledge”

Jimmy Wales (co-creator of Wikipedia)

In Digital Cultures p. 40

As technology develops, so do the number of people using web 2.0. 'Prosumers' is the latest buzzword to come out of the woodwork. It is defined as ' a model of production in which the user of the product or service gets more involved in the process'. For example, apps on the iPhone. 

“Truth and trust are the whipping boys of the Web2.0 revolution”

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Identity and Representation

What is identity rooted in?


Family, gender, class, language & accent perhaps?
All of the above could be class as correct.
But how does the media make products which reach all these categories?


The media is used to mediate different identities. Therefore it is used to make the public feel like they have an identity of some kind. Goffman wrote a book on the presentation of self in every day life, here is a part of that on identity:

'Goffman suggests that there are many 'sign vehicles' that are widely recognized as expressions given off unintentionally by people, by which other can evaluate how successful or sincere that self-presentation is. Some sign vehicles like sex, age and are, are extremely difficult to conceal or manipulate in face-to-face interaction. Although the rest - such as clothing, posture, speech pattern, facial expression, bodily gesture and intonation - are relatively more maniputable' 

                                  Charles Cheung, Presentations of Self Personal homepages in web.studies, p 47                          

                                                                                                                                    
Stuart Hall on the other hand says this:


' The question of 'identity' is being vigorously debated in social theory. In essence, the argument is that the old identities which stabilised the social world for so long are in decline, giving rise to new identities and fragmenting the modern individual as a unified subject. This so-called change 'crisis of identity' is seen as part of a wider process of change which is dislocating the central structures and processes of modern societies and undermining the frameworks which gave individuals stable anchorage in the social world.' 

Stuart Hall (1995: 96)

As digital culture keeps developing in the 21st century, it is lifting the limits of the personal being. Technology is the bridge for new representation. But does this mean we have separate identities online? The 1990's was influenced voyerism through homepages. Cheung defines a homepage as 'a website produced by an individual (or couple, or family) which is centered around the personality and identity of its author(s)' (Cheung, 2000:44). After homepages came GeoCities. It was seen as an important outlet for personal expression, but only lasted 15 years before it was discontinued.

Homepages may include photos, 'description' of the author, achievements etc, much like modern day homepages such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. 

'Cheung also argues that personal websites offer their creators the chance to 'reveal' previously-hidden aspects of their identities; in this way, homepage authors suggest that it is the 'real me' is presented (even though many admit to self-censoring, and to 'tailoring' the presented self)' 

David Bell , An Introduction to Cybercultures  (p.118)

Indentity & web 2.0

(Quick guide to what web 2.0 is!)

Anything that allows a large part of us to engage through the media. The audience becomes the author, eg Youtube. User generated content is a big part of the 21st century digital age. It can range from singing on Youtube instead of going through the mainstream television shows, or tweeting the latest news from Downing street. 'Web 2.0 leads to multiple partial representations of the self in a multilayered form' Alessandro Ludovico. 

Is this true?

For example, on Facebook, if you are tagged in a picture that doesn't show you looking your best, you untag it. Therefore you are altering what the audience of your Facebook can see to make your self-representation something you control. The same with profile pictures, the author chooses one where they think they look their best. 

People find their identity in different ways, one way may be through gaming. For example, WOW (world of warcraft). Identity can be gained through achievements in the game, or socalising with other users. 

As a generation are we remediating our identities?