A Look at Designing Web 2.0

If you have ever tried making a website, you would more or less remember the times when you first looked at your new site (which you have toiled on for at least an hour) and then realized that it didn’t exactly look appealing. In today’s Web 2.0 age, the look and design of an application in the net is very important in social computing and attracting people to your application. In Ellyssa Kroski’s article “Information Design for a New Web”, she details different different strategies on how to design a good Web 2.0 application and still be able to eat you cake at the same time. The article is indeed very good and relevant to studies regarding social computing, since social computing deals in our relationships with others through the World Wide Web. The article gives specific tips on improving on your application and an explanation regarding each. Overall, this article is worth reading. It’s found at:

http://www.masternewmedia.org/information_design/information-design-principles/

web-20-design-simple-social-design-components-20071017.htm

The Future of Learning

With the emergence of Web 2.0, people are changing the way they learn new information and how they gather it. Learning 2.0 has become such an efficient tool for learning that it may be a substitute to going to school. It also provides the opportunity to interact well with people of similar ideas and mindset. According to a blog that I found in the 21st Century Collaborative website, Learning is about unlearning and adapting. What does this mean? In my understanding, in order for learning 2.0 to be effective people would have to put aside what they about something and be flexible enough to learn new ways of acquiring new knowledge about them. Complicated as the explanation is, you can’t deny the fact that the world is becoming so attached to technology. As the technology is advancing, so should our way of learning things. It may even come to a point that we won’t need to go to school to acquire the information we need to move on in life, though I hope that that isn’t the case. However, with the recent advancements in technology, it may happen. Visit the blog at:

http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/learning-20.html

The ideas presented are rather deep, so put on your thinking caps before attempting to read it in one sitting! But it is very in-depth and should be checked out at least once.

Scrapbooks: A Strike on Web 2.0

You might be wondering on what I mean by my title, it’s really simple. According to Selena of New Zealand in her blog entry entitled “Limitations of Web 2.0 Applications in Setting Up Eportfolios”, Web 2.0 technologies have yet to move past the stage of being just “scrapbooks”. Many applications in the web today such as Flickr, Friendster and Picasa may be considered examples of such ”scrapbooks” and suffer from such limitations indicated in the blog, that they are better off as “photo archivals” more than anything else. This is also something that I noticed as a similar quality among many applications. However, I must note that this blog entry was made last year (2006) and these applications may have updated their overall look and feasibility. So for me, it can’t really be a limitation to just be a “scrapbook”. They offer more things that increase the way people interact with the Web than ever before and are still improving over time. Selena’s blog can be found at this site:

http://mportfolios.blogspot.com/2006/05/limitations-of-web-20-applications-in.html

What do you think? Do you feel that such applications still suffer from “Scrapbook syndrome”?

The Past / Present / Future 10 Problems of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 isn’t perfect like anything else. So it would seem fitting to have an article addressing potential problems of Web 2.0. The author, Dion Hinchcliffe, details the 10 potential problems of Web 2.0 as of the year 2006. He indicates that many of these problems arise due to the infancy stage of the technology and to that end I agree with him. However, many of these “problems” can easily be resolved. For instance, in regards to the 4th problem changing the computer’s speed will prove to be an ample solution, as well as faster Internet connection. Of course, that’s just my opinion and people are indeed entitled to their own opinions.

How about you? Check out his blog at:

http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/10_issues_facing_web_20_going_into_2006.htm

Piracy – A Problem for Web 2.0?

With the increase in demand of Web 2.0 technologies over the Internet, the amount of people involvement increases. What I mean about it is that people are more free to download AND upload things in the Internet that can be used by others. I came across this PDF file when I was browsing for Web 2.0, and it shows that indeed piracy is a major issue with Web 2.0. I’ve never realized it until now. We constantly download mp3 files and emulated games and such from the Internet, disregarding the fact that it is indeed causing much copyright infringement, thus harming our industries. Miles Metcalfe shows this in his simple powerpoint style article on this site:

http://info.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/files/events/_972_JISC-RSC_Legal-Issues.pdf

Check it out, and see where piracy stands in Web 2.0.

A Look At E-Learning 2.0

I came across this website a couple of days back concerning e-learning 2.0. Over the past few years, e-learning has indeed evolved to accomodate more of the new users of the Internet, and it shows in the new Web 2.0 system being formed. Part of that is e-learning 2.0, an upgrade to the Internet’s e-learning. I found this article important because it shows different applications that are already gearing towards being more user-friendly and more open to different people. In fact, many old applications that were originally part of the e-learning regime are changing to e-learning 2.0, like Google and Apple. If you want to view this article visit:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/e-learning_20_all_you_need_to_know.php

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