The presentation in class was interesting and informative for me and provided some information beyond the basics that I am familiar with regarding the technologies discussed.
More broadly, I am starting to develop mixed feelings on the web 2.0 movement, particularly given the breadth of start ups that are getting venture capital to launch web 2.0 sites.
On the one hand, it is exciting for users to be so engaged in the content of a tool. Web 2.0 technologies allow opportunities for users to connect to one another and to create. It is possible for someone to write a radio show, create it in garageband, and post it on itunes for anyone to hear, all before cocktails on a Saturday afternoon. The creative possibilities of user-generated content are exciting.
On the other hand, do I really need to sign up for another network of "friends" in order to try out a tool that I may or may not ever use? And where are the SMEs? These are the two main questions that have been coming up for me a lot lately. For example, I have accounts with friendster, orkut, classmates, linkedin, geni, and myspace. I only use the myspace account, and simply because of the sheer numbers of people that are on it, otherwise I don't really care for it. The social network aspect of web 2.0 is getting a bit tired. Every new tool seems to require you to create a whole new profile and new community, which is annoying unless perhaps you have multiple personalities. It's really just a way for the Web 2.0 company to get you to create their user base. Can't they somehow form partnerships or something?
And in regards to quality and SMEs, the prevalence of user-generated content raises the question of how good the stuff is that we're actually consuming. For example, YouTube is a great application theoretically, and is certainly upsetting mainstream media in some ways. However, look at the top 100 videos. What is valuable or thought-provoking about nearly-nude adolescent girls lip-synching or drunk people falling over or monkeys sniffing their butts? It reminds of the book "Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity" by Niedzviecki. He suggests that in a culture in which one can get tattooed and pierced in the local mall and reality TV has taken over and everyone really does have their 15 minutes of fame, individuality and creativity are becoming extinct. (Like the culture the book analyzes, the book is totally average - I wouldn't recommend it). I just think it's worth asking if Web 2.0 technologies are creating more quantity than they ever could quality. And maybe it doesn't matter, except that just as tv networks make tons in advertising for reality shows that are cheap and easy to produce, Web 2.0 companies are making a profit by exploiting people's drives to be creative and special and famous.
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Great post Kate! You should really use this post as the base for about 12 others - lots of ideas to be developed further.
My $0.02 - We often think of idea of choice in the same way we do freedom and these ideas become synonymous to goodness or altruism. Web 2.0 and user generated content, ease-of-use, choice and ultimately freedom (to create, break from the norm, blah) ends up in my column of "so what?" We may have brought users goodness through usability & choice but it might be worthless. I do think there are some great companies out there (great ideas doing "no evil") but in the end, Kate you're right - are just building new profiles to the same product that adds no value to our lives? What is the cost of switching? Are we creating too many creative outlets that bring us no farther (intellectually) than when we were watching "Who's The Boss?"
I like to ramble.
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