VIA Interaction

Thursday, September 14, 2006

"Value derived from the actions of users"

I like the definition of Web 2.0 provided by Information Week's Mike Elgen in Here's The Skinny On Web 2.0:

"Which brings us back to the question: What is Web 2.0? Here's my plain-vanilla definition: Web 2.0 is all the Web sites out there that get their value from the actions of users.

"To illustrate this concept: Yahoo News features both old-school Web mechanisms and Web 2.0 components. Comparing the two shows the stark difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 approaches to creating value.

Yahoo's Top Stories page lists articles according to what editors think should be on the page -- and in what order. The value of the page is provided by the judgment of professionals. But Yahoo's Most Emailed News page places and ranks stories based on the actions of users: Those stories that are e-mailed the most rise to the top. It's a Web 2.0 concept. The value of the page is derived from the actions of users."

Aside from the term users, which I have been trying to expunge from my own vocabulary and the vocabularies of those I work with, I love this definition.

As an ex-journalist, I find it extremely disheartening and amusing to see the difference between what editors choose as important and what people find interesting when comparing those kinds of lists on Yahoo.

posted by Tim Beidel at 9/14/2006 06:21:00 PM

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