Web 2.0: you also create

Asurmendi Sainz, Jabier

Informatika-ingeniaria eta Bitarlan-en sortzailea

Not too long ago, the Internet was made up of static content, but over time interactions and dynamic contents are being woven. Thanks to this and the extension of the Internet and broadband, both in companies and in homes, the Internet is not only the immense storage of information that existed at the beginning, but is a great capacity for applications.
Web 2.0: you also create
01/11/2007 | Asurmendi Sainz, Jabier | Computer engineer and founder of Bitarlan

(Photo: From archive)
In computer science, evolution is usually expressed in versions, as shown by the so-called Web 2.0, the evolution of the web. This evolution has been produced by two aspects: on the one hand, there has been a technical evolution, that is to say, there have been developed applications and websites that allow to interact with each other and, thanks to the resources offered by the web, there has been a tendency to the development of applications in the web environment, and on the other hand, the evolution of society and the change of attitude of the internet users have passed from the mere reading to the participation and the emission of opinions. Therefore, it can be said that we have passed from the passive internet to the active internet user or, at least, to have the option of being active.

The word Web 2.0 is due to O'Reilly Media, more specifically to Dale Dougherty, founder of this company with Tim O'Reilly. The term was first used in 2004 by Dale Dougherty. He used it to express the second generation of web based on user communities, such as blogs, forums and wikis. They are those who make available and promote collaboration and exchange of information between users.

In summary, it can be said that initially the Internet was full of static HTML pages and that these pages were not updated frequently due to the painful maintenance task. Subsequently, little by little, the websites that fed on the databases - known as Web 1.5 - were appearing until they reached the current interactive websites and web services and the diversity of applications. In this way, many of the applications that were previously on the desktop are running in a web environment, both companies and individuals: management applications, photo galleries, atlas, encyclopedias, multimedia applications... To them we must add the applications that take advantage of the services offered by the Internet and that could not be used in a desktop environment.

This is because the execution of applications in a web environment has several advantages: being cross-platform, the use of the application only requires a browser, so it can be used on most operating systems without the need to install other applications. From the Internet we can access our Apps from any computer and from anywhere and save our data from one session to another, entering your user and password. Finally, as a special feature that characterizes the Web 2.0, you can share these personal data, photographs or documents with others.

(Photo: From archive)

After the opening of interactive websites, many types of open internet applications have been appearing, some of them able to perform magnificent operations. However, some types of applications have been especially widespread and have acquired great prestige. Among them are undoubtedly blogs and wikis.

Blogs blogs Blogs Blogs

The term blog comes from English, specifically from the combination of web words and log (English newspaper). They are frequently updated websites where one or more participants write news, articles, reports or opinions. These writings usually appear sorted from major to minor, and can be classified according to specific labels or defined areas. Entries that can be published in blogs do not have to be just text, but can include photographs, links and videos in reports or articles.

In addition, readers can make suggestions and the writer can respond. In this way, conversations or debates can be generated. However, this feature is not always enabled in all blogs. Most blog creation apps offer different options to define permissions in the suggestions, you can disable the suggestions, or give the option to write only to registered users, or leave them free for all users.

"The simplest online database that can work." This is what his creator defined.
Dachris Dachris
The updates of both writing and suggestions can be seen through feed readers. In fact, almost all blogs and all resources for their development take advantage of web syndication to spread the changes.

Wikis

Blogs, although they can be done in group, are usually works of a person. In the case of wikis, on the other hand, it is about collaboration. Precisely, wiki is an ideal way to build collaborative websites. In fact, through the browser, several users can edit the text --formatted - and links easily. In this way, users can create, modify and delete the contents of a website or intranet in a simple and agile way. In addition, wikis allow you to easily recover previous versions of the content. The history of changes made in each document or page, which is an important advantage, is preserved.

Wikipedia is one of the most outstanding results of the wikis. Wikipedia is a multilingual encyclopedia that can be consulted on the Internet and is formed in auzolan, unlike the other Web encyclopedia, that is, anyone can create an article or create one already existing in the language they want. You can say that Wiki is a great application, because it is the way to write and compose the articles, and from that word the name has been taken. At present it has become a prestigious encyclopedia on the Internet widely used (the address of the Basque wikipedia is http://eu.wikipedia.org/).

Wiki means fast in Hawaiian.
A. A. Fog Fog Fog Fog Fog Fog

Wikipedia is a gigantic wiki project available at all levels. It can be a very interesting option, both for companies and associations, for a working team to develop a unique and consensual document or to manage the knowledge of the company.

As a curiosity, the term wiki comes from Hawaiian, wiki wiki wiki esamolde, which means fast in Basque. Ward Cunningham created the first web wiki.

Web syndication and RSS

In addition to the applications, one of the most interesting features that has come with the Web 2.0 is the possibility to expand the new contents of a website. It is done thanks to web syndication. This option is mainly used in blogs, but in principle is a resource that can be used on any website. In this way, any user who wants to follow the contents of a set of websites does not have to access them daily. Through a desktop application or web environment you can access the new contents of all websites, as long as each website allows it.

Flikcr's web service is used both to upload and classify photos and to search for own or other photos. Photo albums can be created and users can make suggestions in the photos. Address: http://www.flickr.com/
From file

Thus, web syndication is only a flow of diffusion of the contents of a website. Through syndication, a website can send content sharing its contents with a source reader in the web environment or on the desktop or with another website that wants to use its contents.

Syndication is encoded in XML format and the most used formats are RSS and Atom. However, currently RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used to designate both formats.

To read the RSS feeds, as indicated, readers of sources are used. They can be desktop or Internet environment, and the user only has to subscribe to websites that interest him. From there, the RSS reader receives updated RSS feeds and notifies us of the new contents that we have not read on each website.

Among RSS readers, one of the best known is Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com), which is in French and Spanish, but not in Basque, currently. It is a web environment reader with some advantages. With Internet access and a browser, from any computer you can read the news you want or the contents of the favorite websites, including email and password.

Bloglines RSS Reader.

Registration to access the service is free and just specify the email, password, desired language and time zone. Once the session is started, in the left menu the subscribed RSS feeds appear and in parentheses the number of new contents. In addition, they can be classified by folders to organize them better. On the right side are shown the new contents of the selected RSS feed.

The internet giant Google has also developed its RSS reader. It is called Google Reader and can be found in http://www.google.com/reader/. As in Bloglines, RSS feeds can be organized by folders. In addition, Google Reader offers statistics on subscriptions: Average number of entries from each RSS feed per day, for example, in relation to our readings. And, as expected, being the Google RSS reader, it has a quite complete search engine that allows you to search all entries, in a folder or in all RSS feeds. However, Google Reader is not yet in Basque.

Local labels can be placed in Tagzania to comment on them.

The source reader Alesti RSS, on the other hand, is in Basque and, like the previous two, belongs to the web environment. The organization system of RSS feeds is not by folders but by labels. That is to say, to each RSS flow several tags separated by commas can be associated, so you can see the RSS feeds associated with that tag by clicking on each tag. If you want to use Alesti you can do so at http://www.alesti.org. Registration is also free in Alesti and the only data to enter are the username, password and email.

Basque Web 2.0

Fortunately, on the Internet not everything is in English, and over time some projects have been formed in Basque. Among them, in addition to the aforementioned ones, are www.zabaldu.com - which disseminates news that appear on the Internet -; www.galdu.com, service of consultation; www.tagzania.com, to create tags in maps of the whole world; or www.blogari.net, a means for anyone who wants to create their own blog. You have no excuse to access the Web 2.0.

Forums Forums Forums
Internet forums allow for discussions or exchanges of opinion online. Often, websites are not developed to have a single forum, but contain other content and are used to create a community and foster dialogue among participants. This does not happen with blogs, as it is possible that the entire website is a blog.
From file
The forums, therefore, allow to create a community around a specific field, in order to carry out free and informal conversations. In many cases it is one or more moderators who control and/or energize the forum to avoid the entry of advertising and offensive messages.
In forums, unlike blogs, interviews are hierarchically classified to facilitate the understanding and continuity of the conversation. In addition, in general, in forums there are more participants than in blogs.
Google, also leader in 2.0
The best known product of this internet giant is the search engine, but it has launched and is leaving other web services. Apart from the search engine, it is not easy to say which of them is the most used or the most popular. In any case, all of them can be considered as Web 2.0, in most cases they use the technology called AJAX to show the data in the browser faster and prevent the server from making so many requests.
Google Maps
This web service offers the possibility to visualize the whole world of the Internet through satellite images, map images or in a hybrid way -- adding both fables. In some cities in the United States, you can also see traffic and you can see the streets in three dimensions (this resource has provoked controversy). The user sees them as crossing the streets of the city on foot, that is, not from top to bottom with satellite photos, but as if they were inside the city. If so, to travel without moving from home in the boring just go to http://maps.google.es.
MDL
GMail (http://mail.google.com) became famous for the place it offered at the time of its takeoff in 2004, as it was the only one offering a gigabyte. Today, however, GMail users already have a capacity of 2.9 gigabytes.
Although initially the invitation to sign up for GMail was necessary, the service has already been opened and is open to anyone. It is currently in forty-one languages, including French and Spanish, but not Basque.
Above, the city of New York from the satellite and earth, in Google Maps. Below, the hybrid map of Pamplona, the satellite view and the names of the streets.
Google Docs - Google
This Google resource allows you to create, remove, modify and manage pages with text format and spreadsheets over the Internet. Documents can be organized by folders on the Internet and used from any computer and from anywhere, with name and password. In addition, documents can be shared so that they can be read by other users or, if the owner of the document wishes, they can be modified and written in collaboration. The address to access Google Docs is http://docs.google.com/.
Google Calendar Google Calendar
Google Calendar is an agenda and a calendar. You can define holidays or repetitive or specific events and configure them to advise in advance (minutes, hours or days). The notice can be received by email or displayed via a message window in the browser itself. But Google Calendar has the peculiarity that the events or holidays of your agenda can be public or private and, if they are public, they can be used by any other. Other public calendars such as local parties, santo-nomenclator, lunar or calendar events of an entity can also be used. The url of Google Calendar is http://www.google.com/calendar/
Youtube, Google Video and Euskaltube
Youtube and Google Video are two web services to watch and share videos through the web. They are different, but currently Google owns both. On October 10, 2006, he bought Youtube for 1,650 million dollars. However, for the moment it has maintained both websites. In addition, if a search is made in Google Video, the results of both websites appear. You can try these services at http://www.youtube.com and http://video.google.com/. In both cases, videos can be classified and users can write their suggestions.
Neither one is in Euskara, but it does not matter, because in Euskal Herria a competitor has been created, it is called Euskaltube and it is in http://www.euskaltube.com/. The website is entirely in Basque and, as in other websites, videos can be shared and classified. In addition, it has RSS feeds to warn of new videos and connection with Twitter.
Favorite Links 2.0: Del.icio.us and Bildu
When immersed in the Internet, the addresses of the websites of interest are stored in the shortcuts of the browser. However, in case of being on another computer, it is not possible to access the shortcuts of that browser and obtain the desired shortcut mark. To overcome this barrier are useful the international project Del.icio.us and the Basque project Bildu.net. These services allow you to save favorite links on the network and access from any computer. As with many other Webs 2.0, in these services, links can be classified through tags that allow determining whether saved links are private or public. All people who access these websites can access our links if they wish. This is interesting to share information from interesting websites among people with similar interests. For example, they can be used by associations or companies to manage links of interest to the entity. These addresses are: http://del.icio.us/ and http://www.bildu.net.
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