What is Web 2.0?

Snazzy logos, glassy icons, creative sites with equally creative names, amazing flexibility, rich web experience, ... It's all over the Internet now - and everyone wants more!

This is the power that Web 2.0 has brought to unleash the "Power of You".


'Web 2.0' sounds new - and in many ways, is the next version of the web. In a sense, it is a next, but is hardly a [higher] version in the conventional sense of things. Rather, it is more about the next generation of the Web (or Internet), and it manifests itself in different ways.

Web 2.0 is undoubtedly an exciting trend - and has since, given rise to a plethora of "2.0" terms! - that is slated to change the way businesses and the folks who belong to those businesses, no matter who or where they are, perform their routine set of tasks.

The term "Web 2.0" is widely accepted to be associated with Tim O'Reilly, during the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. To quote a more formal definition, according to O'Reilly and Battelle:

"[Web 2.0 is] an architecture of participation where users can contribute website content to create network effects. Web 2.0 technologies tend to foster innovation in the assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development and an end to the software adoption cycle, the so-called "perpetual beta"). Web 2.0 technology encourages lightweight business models enabled by syndication of content and of service and by ease of picking up early adopters..."

By this time, it's probably unlikely that you have not heard or come across at least one of the following:
and are already socializing with your buddies on Facebook, using Wikipedia as a reference (encyclopedia), tagging stuff on del.icio.us, watching videos that users upload onto YouTube, and of course, writing, reading or commenting on someone's blog somewhere.

All this is what's "Web 2.0" is made of (aka, the core principles of Web 2.0):

• Web as a Platform
• User-generated content
• Content syndication
• Social Networking / Tagging
• Collective Intelligence
• Rich User Experience / Collaboration
• New Business Models / The Long Tail

Web 2.0 is an amazing phenomenon - and is here to stay. Surely, I won't be able to do justice to this business revolution in a single post, and I sure am glad that I am fortunate to experience it in this age.

Keep watching this space!

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing, which is the new buzz these days, and has also figured in Gartner's annual listing of technologies to watch for, is seeing a lot of hype of late. I don't exactly recall when I began using the term myself - but, it was probably when the topic started popping up in a number of blogs and forums and seminars and conversations.

I'll admit, I haven't researched the subject enough, to put a finger on when (or what exactly led to) the birth of this concept took place (you know, like how "Web 2.0" is attributed to Tim O'Reilly's talk at a conference). However, as with most technologies - and keeping in view Gartner's Hype Cycle paradigm - these things tend to seemingly happen right before one's own eyes, before you know it.

For example, Google's Gmail which began offering 'unlimited' storage. Or, to counter this, most of the popular email service providers bumped up their account quotas pretty much simultaneously. Or, Jonathan Schwartz's dream of 'The Network is the Computer' (2006). Looking back, I think this could not have been possible, without, what we now recognize as forms of cloud computing. Sure, now there are other examples.

Put very simply, Cloud Computing:

• Is a style of computing (much like how SOA is a style of architecture)
• Inherently offers dynamic scalability (as in 'on-demand')
• Is offered as a service (over the Internet, that is)

Based on these fundamental characteristics, cloud computing typically comprises three distinct 'types' or 'models':

• Infrastructure (or Hardware) as a Service (Iaas or HaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS), and
  
• Software as a Service (SaaS)

I'll elaborate on each of these areas further in subsequent posts, but the key concept behind this seemingly powerful concept - which is beginning to see the light of day - is that it based on the fact, that computing power like your regular electric power, is as good as a utility. That is, both hardware and software can be thought of as 'utility', that are consumed when you need them. And, hence, the concept of on-demand or pay-as-you-use services.

Cloud Computing is here to stay - and Web 2.0 is closely associated to it - and while the current global economic downturn may have slowed things down a bit, it offers the promise of reducing IT expenditure (capex) for agile businesses.

Technology

Well, that's what this blog is for!

And, that's what we'll cover here. You'll find information on a number of technologies here, we promise!

News

Technology and the technical world is a dynamic universe. New technologies coming up, innovations, standardizations, new business models, mergers & acquisitions, ...

There's a whole lot of news on a daily basis.

Magazines

Just like books, its a pleasure to find, browse or read magazines. Unlike books, magazines are more succinct and help to create awareness, educate and feed the information in brief, to be pursued further, if needed.

Once again, we'll cover (technical) magazines and their articles, here.