Requests for a definition of Web 2.0 are still made by clients - for some this is still a new subject. Here’s a summary of the points I recently used to describe Web 2.0 to an FMCG advertiser.

Web 2.0 is an inclusive phrase that covers the new web based networking, customisation and data management functionalities that have emerged since 2000. 2000 is a significant start point because it played host to two important events in the gestation of Web 2.0. First, 2000 was the year of the dotcom crash which, in an almost Darwinian sense, extinguished poor performing technologies and ideas and created the intellectual, technological and financial ‘space’ for something new. And second, 2000 was the year that Google began real take-off after receiving $25m of venture capital in 1999. This investment paved the way for Google to expand globally and redefine the way web information is catalogued, ordered and retrieved worldwide.

It’s important to note that the web as a technology platform remains largely unchanged, but in Web 2.0, the way that platform is being used has changed dramatically. Web 2.0 is about moving web content from being information on a news stand to being customised information solutions for individual needs. This individual customisation is the essence of Web 2.0. The guys who coined the phrase Web 2.0* cite a number of examples to illustrate how Web 2.0 is an evolution from Web 1.0. Here are two examples that really sum it up:

1) Encyclopaedia Britannica versus Wikipedia

Britannica was - and remains - an online encyclopedia written and researched by the Britannica editorial team. It’s a huge compendium of information, but it remains under the tight control of Britannica. Wikipedia on the other hand is open to editorial contributions from almost anyone at any time. It is therefore never the same across any two days. That makes it a living and evolving entity. Where Britannica is ice, Wikipedia is water. Britannica is Web 1.0 and Wikipedia is Web 2.0.

2) Personal Website versus Blogs

Personal websites are generally static and non-interactive. Content is uploaded, pages are then fixed and remain unaltered unless the webmaster decides to make changes. Change is cumbersome, requiring changes in HTML source code. Blogs on the other hand are a platform designed to have content updated frequently. New content can be posted every minute and uploaded from PCs or mobile phones. Readers can air their views by posting comments. Content can be emailed to others. Blogs can be “claimed” at Technocrati where all registered blogs are brought together in a searchable blog universe or blogosphere. Personal Web sites are 1.0 and blogs are Web 2.0.

Other ways of defining Web 2.0

There are other ways of defining Web 2.0. Think of drinking in a highly social pub rather than having a glass of wine at home alone. Think of videoconferencing rather than watching the TV. Think of CB radio with its network of “breakers on the side” rather than a one to one linear telephone call. Think in terms of the Internet versus the printing press or conventional TV versus You Tube. Web 2.0 is Facebook where 1.0 is a printed membership directory. Web 1.0 is one dimensional, non-network based, comparatively static and delivered to “mass” online audiences. But Web 2.0 is about being multi-dimensional, connected, highly dynamic and delivered on a customised one to one basis.

What are Web 2.0’s component parts?

Web 2.0 is many things and the list is potentially endless – there are already about 9m references to it in Google. Even the guys who defined Web 2.0 had to say “Web 2.0 doesn’t have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core”. Here are some of our examples:

Blogs / Blogosphere
Broadband
Comments
Communities
Content
Databases
Democracy of information
Facebook
Google
Google Adwords and Adsense
i-Tunes and i-Pods
LinkedIn
Networking
Tags
The “People who bought this, also bought this” feature in Amazon (A web 1.0 survivor)
Technocrati
User Generated Content
Widgets
Wikipedia

These examples are component parts of a totally new media age. It’s a new form of media (indeed media may no longer be the right word) with a new set of rules, a new language, a new functionality and it’s a world that puts the consumer, as the scheduler, at its core.

* O’Reilly Media and MediaLive International