Web 2.0 - whats the story?

Im sure you have all heard the term web 2.0 thrown around in recent months/years.

Definition:
The second generation of the World Wide Web, especially the movement away from static web pages to dynamic shareable content and social networking - Thanks Wikipedia

So here is my take and the relevance to our industries:

Web 2.0 is the second era of websites. Over the last decade or more anyone who had built a website has written it in a style which is now out of date. It still makes sense, but is outdated, and sometimes not well understood or relevant today. Yesterdays websites were generally built by your graphic designer (who may not be a trained web developer), or a web developer (who may not be a trained graphic designer). Most of the time you have to go back to these people to make changes and to update, which costs money and reduces your inclination to make changes as often as you would like  to keep  the content fresh - which is of huge importance to search engines like Google.

Web 2.0 is about technology which allows you (and possibly other people if you wish) to maintain a constant flow of information through your website. This can be as simple as having a content management system allowing you to update your site without having to go to a third party, or having a blog.

Web 2.0 technology has brought together the answers for changes in the way society is communicating and also how we need to market to them. With the millions of advertisements we see each day, it is important to keep on top of how people are making their purchasing decisions now. A big hint - you can no longer tell people how good your product is (they will not necessarily believe you) - they want to be told by someone else - someone who has already experienced it.

We are fascinated by the way other people live - just think of this:

Most popular tv shows -Masterchef, Idol (reality)

Most popular radio - talk back

Most popular section of the newspaper - the letters to the editor and

The most popular websites - social networks like facebook, myspace and the wide variety of sites where other people rank products and experiences (travel industry site such as TripAdvisor).

How relevant is this to our industries - if we can use these to our advantage, then we are ahead of the pack already. This is all web 2.0 technology, in response to the demand - we need to learn from the timely efficiency of the online players in dealing with these social changes, its time we caught up.

What are your thoughts?

Until next time, Flick

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