Web 2.0 for Non-Geeks

This is a non-geek lens for information about web 2.0 applications. If you're a geek you still might get something out of it. If you're one of those effete know-it-alls, take it somewhere else, ok, Poindexter?

So here's the basic poop on Web 2.0:

The "2.0" part is just a sideways reference to how computer program upgrades are usually tagged. Like version 1.0, version 2.0, etc. So "Web 2.0" is ostensibly an upgraded version of how the web has worked until the very early in this century.

Until the then, most web pages had been "static." That is, someone wrote something, or made images, movies, whatever, and the page just stayed where it was, and didn't change.

As webmasters desired more interaction with their visitors, programmers came up with more and more ways for people to actually change the experience of their visits. Thus were born sites like YouTube and MySpace.

Earlier, you could just put your material up and have it viewed. Now, when you join something like YouTube, you can upload a video of your own, put labels on it (called "tags") which people can use to search for videos that are relevant to what they want, as well as let people rate your video, leave comments about it, add it to their "favorites" list, pass it along to their friends, embed it on their own blog or website, add you to their "community," and on and on.

As you can see, with Web 2.0 applications, the user has much more control over his or her experience.

A typical manifestation of Web 2.0 are blogs. Way back in the beginning of the millennium, when the Websitesaurus Rex fought with other dinosaurs of the web for supremacy, if you wanted to have a "web presence" you usually needed some sort of software on your computer, like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. There was a pretty steep learning curve for them. Then you needed a web-host, and after went you through the manic-depressive stages of web-design, if you didn't throw your computer out the window, you'd have yourself a nifty little website.

That website would be there for people to see, and maybe they could send you an e-mail from it, if you figured out how to make the links work.

Then along came the swift and flexible blog. Now anyone (even a gasbag like Matt Drudge) could set up a free account, from which he could write a journal, write reports, talk about his hobbies, or create a rift in the country by fanning the flames of ignorance. But digression is not good journalism, I am told...

The point is, with a blog, you don't need software. You create the blog online, from a site that provides all the elements you need. The site also provides lots of ways for your readership to interact with you. There are drag-and-drop ways to add contact-links for people to be able to e-mail you. There are automatic comment boxes under each post for people to be able to leave feedback for you.

Blogs have built-in ways to make communities, add RSS feeds (more on these later) and other nifty ways for authors and readers to interact.

Blogs were the first great popular movement in Web 2.0. You could say the were the "killer app" of Web 2.0.

Now go ahead and check out the videos below about Web 2.0. Don't worry if you don't understand everything. We're just dipping our toes in the water at this point. Pretty soon you'll be swimming around just fine.

• iGoogle. Google's not just for searching anymore. iGoogle is a great way to organize your online life.


• YouTube. This is probably the most popular of them all. Among other things, it's a great source of tutorials for anything you can think of, especially how to use some of these Web 2.0 sites.


• MySpace. It's a bit controversial, because so many people abuse it, but it's still one of the most popular and powerful networking sites there is.


• Squidoo. My favorite.


• Flickr. A place to host and share your photos.


• Wikipedia. Wiki's are total Web 2.0. They are a great way to share and edit information. Wikipedia is the user-edited online encyclopedia. When you need info on a subject, it's probably better to search there than on Google for most things.


• Del.icio.us This is a "social bookmarking" site. It blows the doors off your bookmarks in your web-browser. It stores your bookmarks online so you can access them from any computer, and you can tag them and share them with other people, and investigate their bookmarks, too. It's a great way to see what people with simialar interests to yours find interesting.

continued...

• Digg. A place to tell people what you "dig." If you find a website, or blog on the net that you like, you can "dig" it. There are various ways to do that, but what it essentially means is that you add it to your Digg account. You can also see how many other people have "dug" that site. It's a popularity site.


• Technorati. This site is a network of almost all the blogs on the net. Anytime anyone posts to their blog, they can "ping" Technorati, and that will add that post to the first page on the Technorati site. It's really a search-engine for blogs, but the blogs are not rated on some esoteric algorithm like google's. The posts are listed in chronological order. In other words, the most recent posts are on the front page.


• RSS feeds. RSS is said to stand for "Really Simple Sydication." Although not totally simple, it's not difficult, either. Basically, it is a way for you to be automatically notified any time new information appears on a blog or site that interests you. For example, could sign up for the RSS feed to this Squidoo lens. Then, any time I updated the lens with more information, you would get an instant notification. That would save you from having to come back and check yourself.
  
  Want to try that now? Look along the left side of this page for the link that says "RSS Feed." Then look up at the address bar in your web-browser. You will probably see an "RSS" icon along with the address there. Click on that icon. What happens from there will differ from computer to computer, depending on what the default RSS reader on your computer is. If you have a default reader, the steps to take will probably be fairly obvious from the prompts you will get. If you don't have a default reader, I don't know what to tell you right now. I hope to get a lesson up on that at some time, though. In the mean time, google "rss readers, tutorials" or type that into the search box at YouTube.com and see what comes up.

There are many others, like Furl, Reddit, Stumbleupon, etc. You may have seen the icons and links for these and those above on many blogs or websites.

I'll try to cover as many of these as I can as time goes by. Check back often, or signup for the RSS feed.

What is GMail, and why do I suggest you start there?

GMail is Google's free, web-based e-mail program. When you go poking around Web 2.0 and other sites, you probably will want to join some in order to take advantage of their great possibilities.

You (like me and many others) may not want to give out your main e-mail address when you join up. You may be afraid of spam. (I am.) In order to protect your main e-mail address, you can create a GMail account, and get another e-mail address, which you can check from any computer, as long as it his hooked up to the internet.

With GMail you don't need Entourage, Outlook, Apple Mail or any other e-mail software (although you can use any of those with GMail, if you want to. (More about that later).

There are many, many benefits to having a second e-mail account, like GMail, when you are signing up for forums, blogs, company websites, subscriptions or buying products online. They are explored more thoroughly in the videos below, entitled "Why You should use GMail," (parts 1 and 2).

GMail itself is only marginally a "Web 2.0" application. It does use "tagging" (a kind of labeling system, that is more flexible than the hierarchy of folders or directories, and it does have good interactive features, like chat.

But I suggest you start there and sign up for an account, so you can use it to join all sorts of other Web 2.0 sites that we'll be investigating as we go along.

You're at a "Squidoo Lens." Squidoo is my favorite Web 2.0 application. It's an online web-based way to make sites and interact with the readers. It allows instant feedback in the form of the comments box at the bottom of this lens. There are also ways for anyone who puts up a lens to have ratings and surveys on each of the modules on the lens.

OK, what does "lens" and "module" mean? A lens is simply Squidoo's word for a site. But the thrust of lenses is to give the reader information on a particular subject, and point the reader to other sites where they can get more information. A lens is like a conduit that focusses on a particular subject (in this case it's Web 2.0) and provides paths to further investigation. Hence the YouTube videos and the links.

A "module" is an area on a lens where information is provided. Each of the textboxes that has a heading, like this one entitled "You're Already at a Web 2.0 Site" is a "module." When you create your lens, Squidoo offers you different kinds of boxes, like text boxes, or video boxes, in which you can insert information, like the address of a YouTube video. Then, once you have filled in the information in the boxes, you hit the "publish" button, and it sends all that information to the web, in the form of your lens.

One of the main purposes of this lens is to introduce you to Squidoo.

In updates and on further lenses in development, I'll provide some Squidoo tutorials, so you can create your own lenses, and increase your "web presence." You can make a lens about anything, a hobby, a talent, books you like (there are even Amazon.com modules you can add to your lens, and sell amazon books on commission, with no programing necessary!)
Learn more about Squidoo, and how to start your own lens, below.

You should also poke around Squidoo and YouTube for tutorials on anything you want to learn about (like Squidoo and YouTube!) Just go to those sites and type in whatever you want to learn about in the search boxes. You don't have to join to view the lenses or videos, but you do have to join them in order to take advantage of their powerful features, and to create lenses and videos of your own.

Making a Squidoo Lens (mini-website) is a piece of cake!

There is a great, step-by-step, illustrated lens about how to do just that at :
Your First Squidoo Lens

If you follow along with it as you make yours, you could have your own lens up in a few minutes. I strongly suggest you get involved with Squidoo, as it is really part of the future of the way the web will work. And it's FREE!

Happy Squidoo-ing.

I'll occasionally update this lens, but I'll also be building other lenses, one of which will be all about getting started with Squidoo. This lens will link to all the others. It will be the "MasterLens" for my Web 2.0 lens. Come back often, or subscribe to the RSS feed to make sure you don't miss anything.

And of course, sign up for G-Mail, join Squidoo, and leave a comment.