Web 2.0 and social networking

It's about managing people

We all understand the importance of human interaction. From the esoteric worlds of international scientific and business collaboration, to the mundane workings of local community groups, people need to interact to make things happen. Web 2.0, social networking, and cloud computing may be technology buzz words, but the changes are not really technological: they come from understanding and managing the human aspects of employing the technology.

Web 2.0 has been used in restrospect as a term to define situations where users can interact with a site rather than being passive viewers of the content of others (now thought of as Web 1.0). Thus users can generate content for other users, for example by submitting comments or participating in a forum. Social networking means that users can interact directly with each other via a web site, for example by publishing a profile and being linked as friends or colleagues.

While there is a lot of hype about these new 'technologies' there is nothing particularly new in scientific terms. What is changing is our use of the Internet as we develop it into a more comprehensive tool. Although the young may lead the buzz about the latest social networking tool, it's not just for kids. Companies collaborating on bids and projects, governments and administrations interacting with the public or with business, groups of people who need to share resources, delegates to an event or meeting, authors who need to produce joint documents: all these kind of scenarios can benefit from the tools of Web 2.0 and social networking. What's more, there are major cost advantages.

However, there are also pitfalls. Inexpert use of inappropriate tools, over-expectation, and being led by the techno-fanatical are common experiences. Web 2.0 and social networking are about people, users, communities. It is here that management is required if a Web 2.0 implementation is to achieve its objectives and avoid being an empty technological shell. There are some resources listed in the menu bar which you are werlcome to use.