The term “Web 2.0” and its synonyms

The Web 2.0 is something that is still happening and hence difficult to define. The term goes back to the year 2005, when web pioneer and vice president Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly brought up this term during a brainstorming session [1]. Then, the Web 2.0 conference was born as well. The next Web 2.0 Summit is scheduled for November of this year.

In their bestselling Wikinomics book [2], Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams refer to some other names for Web 2.0: the living Web, the Hypernet, the active Web, the read/write Web. Today's Web surfers usually don't care much about the name of this technology, they just use it. Programming and mark-up languages such as HTML, XML, CSS and JavaScript belong to the technical core knowledge for Web 2.0 designers [3]. But there is not a single Web 2.0 technology and expansion into new schemes and schemas is ongoing.

It has become popular to attach the “2.0 suffix” to concepts and applications nurtured by Web 2.0 technology. For example, Joel Comm uses “twitter power 2.0” as the title for his latest book edition on social networking and online marketing with Twitter [4].

Keywords: Web design, Internet, information technology, digital networking

References
[1] Tim O'Reilly: What is Web 2.0 • Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. 09/30/2005. HTML version.
[2] Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams: Wikinomics • How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Portfolio/Penguin Books Ltd, London, Paperback edition 2010; page 19.
[3] Eric van der Vist, Danny Ayers, Erik Bruchez, Joe Fawcett and Allessandro Vernet:
Professional Web 2.0 Programming. Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, 2007.
[4] Joel Comm: twitter power 2.0 • How to dominate your market one tweet at a time . John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey, 2010.