The A Spot

One of our loyal and lonely readers - Gretchen - has asked for a post that unpacks the term Web 2.0 to give us a bit of context since both Matthew and I have been posting about this idea a bit lately. Not to rehash what has already been done on numerous other blogs I will try to keep this relevant to the larger issue of advocacy.

For short hand here is a quick breakdown from Tim O’Reilly’s blog from 2005 which compares by example Web 2.0 tools to Web 1.0 tools:

Web 2.0 has advanced alot since he first wrote this article.  There is still alot of hype around the potential for these tools in places where broadband Internet access is not readily available but we have seen the connections between web based content and cell phones, public access computing centers, small footprint web enabled devices break down some of the barriers to entry.  Web 2.0 is all about tools which help users generate content, communicate and share ideas, materials and resources with others, craft and build campaigns.  Some ubiquitous Web 2.0 tools are Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Change.org.

Beth Kanter over at Beth’s blog does a good job describing some of the Web 2.0 tools - such as new media and social media tools - which are relevant to advocacy as: Social media is … a way of using the Internet to instantly collaborate, share information, or have a conversation ideas or causes we care about. It’s a world where anyone can be a publisher, a reporter, an artist, a filmmaker, a photographer or pundit …. Even an activist or citizen philanthropist!”

Examples of Web 2.0 use in the civil society sector are rounded up here in the session materials, outlines and resources from the recent Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans.