IT Management: What Is Web 2 0 - Essay Example

Rather than the website author being the center of knowledge, and disseminating the knowledge on the website, in Web 2.0, the users constantly add to the website, changing it and making it new.  Facebook is often given as an example of Web 2.0 computing.  It is a site that many people use, and add to, but no one owns or controls the information on.   

Relevance

            Web 2.0 computing is relevant because it represents a rebirth of computing and internet use, after the initial dot com bubble.  Most people today are part of some sort of social networking site, and this is Web 2.0.  The concept is relevant because it affects IT change and standardization.

Implications

            The implications of Web 2.0 for governments and organizations are multiple.  First of all, there is the idea of connectivity that Web 2.0 creates; there is also the elimination of a top-down command structure.  These are liberating settings in which the user becomes the controller.  It can be used to show how people in a community can become a part of a larger community, through Web 2.0 government.  “What's more, two of our initial Web 1.0 exemplars, DoubleClick and Akamai, were both pioneers in treating the web as a platform. People don't often think of it as "web services", but in fact, ad serving was the first widely deployed web service, and the first widely deployed "mashup" (to use another term that has gained currency of late)” (Web, 2008).  Web 2.0 is important to understanding changing IT trends, and is something of which governments should take advantage.

Options

• The government can enable Web 2.0 sharing among employees. “Apparently, web-enabled collaborative tools that can improve productivity are of great interest among an increasingly mobile workforce. With that in mind, enterprises are likely to further invest in collaborative tools like unified communications in the next few years” (Poon, 2009).
• The government can enable Web 2.0 sharing and give its employees handheld PDAs.
• The government can stay with Web 1.0 style applications and site designs.

Risks

            Some worry about the lack of privacy with Web 2.0, and the lack of differentiation between the user’s work and home life.  For example, if an employee of Queensland is on Web 2.0 through Facebook, hooked up to the government site, if they post personal pictures or material that is not approved by the government, they may face restrictions.  However, it is also important to respect users’ privacy, so a line has to be drawn at some point. 

Recommendations

            The government should adopt Web 2.0, creating its own Facebook page and other pages.  Employees must also become involved.  “Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core” (O’Reilly, 2007).  Web 2.0 is not just a passing fad; it is the wave of the future in terms of current IT changes.