Evolving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and beyond

Created by Brett Oppegaardfor Washington State University's

DTC 375 class, spring 2009

As our society has transcended from orality to literacy to mediacy

In which virtually everything we experience is mediated in some way, life has become a heavily layered process of constant

symbol creation, use and interpretation. The 26 letters of the alphabet are shuffled and picked out to make words, words are

connected to make sentences, sentences are connected to images and sounds and other sensory data, creating the complex

mosaic we piece together and consider our modern existence.

Postmodern communication• Doesn’t have to be face to face,

voice to voice or even human to human

• Doesn’t have to be linear or chronological to be understood

• Doesn’t have to be understood in a single universal way to meet its goals; a more abstract way of interpreting the world

Concurrent media evolutionBy studying the first truly mass medium, radio, and the mass

media technologies that have followed, such as television and cinema, we have learned, as summarized by Marshall McLuhan: A new mass medium at first will remediate what the old media

has done, such as television initially presenting radio plays. But as the new media develops, and users begin to understand what

the new medium does best, unique innovation and art emerge.

Web 1.0 (1989 – 2001)

• Dial-up connection speeds, 56 kbit/s (kbit/s = 1,000 bits per second)

• Print ideas pasted directly to the Web, static pages intended to be read

• Information flows down from the monolithic voice; content washes over users, who seek it out

• Focused on businesses and traditional organizations, with a client-to-server flow

• About sharing your message

Web 1.0 was more novelty than disruptive

Web 2.0 (2002 – present)

• Broadband connection speeds, 700 kbit/s to 50 mb/s (mb/s = 1,000,000 bits per second)

• Interactive ‘texts’ that blend hyperlinks, images, sound and animation

• Information bubbles up from users; content connects and creates groups; it also comes to you

• Focused on niche communities, with peer-to-peer flow• About creating conversations, engaging users in

dynamic new ways and inviting participation

Web 2.0 has changed everything!

Three principles of interaction1. Input / Output – Input should create output and vice versa (20-

second rule; input should provoke more input)

2. Inside / Outside – Inside-the-mind context, what you know, is stimulated with outside-the-mind senses (appearance, design, sounds, symbols)

3. Open / Closed – Open, vibrant and unpredictable versus closed, canned and predictable (system should get better the more it is used)

Source: Mark Stephen Meadows, ‘Pause & Effect’