• Web 1.0 was about connecting information and getting on the net.
• Web 2.0 is about connecting people - putting the "I" in user interface, and the "we" into webs of social participation.
• Web 3.0, the next stage, is starting now. It is about representing meanings, connecting knowledge, and putting these to work in ways that make our experience of internet more relevant, useful, and enjoyable.
• Web 4.0 will come later. It is about connecting intelligences in a ubiquitous web where both people and things reason and communicate together. Over the next decade, semantic technologies will spawn multi-billion dollar technology markets that will drive trillion dollar global economic expansions to transform industries as well as our experience of the internet.

Companies are using Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies to communicate, collaborate and share information with employees, researchers, customers, partners and suppliers. Examples of Web 2.0 capabilities that can benefit your organization include:

• Web services - self contained applications which perform functions, from simple requests to complicated business processes that operate over the Web. Examples include:
  • Financial - interest, APR, future value, tax rates and mortgage calculators, real-time fraudulent online credit card order transactions.
  • Insurance - claim pricing based on CMS data.
  • Marketing - information about a potential market segment or prospect.
  • Sales - information about a prospect or competitor.
  • Surveys - customer, employee and partner.
  • Shipping - time, routes and cost.
• Collective intelligence - a form of intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of a group of individuals such as practitioners, scholars, researchers, communities and networks for the purpose of sharing information and making decisions. Examples include Wikipedia and Knowledge Exchange - the more they are used the better they get.
• Peer-to-peer networking - a technique for efficiently sharing files over the Internet.
• Web as a platform - build applications that are highly scalable, secure and with high availability - similar to that of large enterprises at a fraction of the cost.
• Social/Commerce Networking - an ecosystem that allows members to learn and collaborate with other members in terms of skills, talents, knowledge, research, preferences, etc. (e.g., LinkedIn) that create viral spread.
• Mash-ups - a web application that combines data from more than one source, such as a third party API web service into a single integrated application, such as Google maps and directions.
• Wikis - a collection of web pages designed for easy access and to contribute and modify content. Allows widespread collaboration across organizational boundaries to innovate and generate new ideas.
• Blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds are additional Web 2.0 capabilities.

Web 2.0 Technologies

Technologies that make Web 2.0 applications possible include:

• Ajax - enables web pages to be very interactive, responsive and closely resemble desktop applications.
• Adobe's Flex and Microsoft's Silverlight - allows developers to build rich, interactive and expressive applications that supports multi-media.
• Ruby on Rails - allows real-world applications to be built in less time and with less code.
• Rich APIs - APIs such as Google maps and search, OpenSocial for social networks, etc. allows developers to build applications faster.
• XML, Web Services, and RSS - enables faster exchange of information and content, etc.

Web 2.0 Best Practices

Representative best practices for Web 2.0 are:

• Early and frequent releases.
• Leveraging of users as co-developers and real-time testers.
• Development of frameworks for how customers are using the product.
• Incrementally creating new products.
• Integrating third-party web services to extend product functionality.
• Making operations a core competency.
• Using dynamic tools and languages such as Ruby on Rails.
• Architecting for rapid growth/adaptation and high scalability.