The university comes alive again as students return to campus and our teaching block starts today.

The links ahead are for a presentation to my students on Web2.0 which I am giving this morning

The term Web2.0 is disliked and disputed but was coined by Dale Dougherty of O’Reilly Media.
In his now famous article What Is Web 2.0 Tim O’Reilly mapped out the key aspects of Web2.0 technologies and after much debate he refined his ideas in Web 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again

A Definition of Web2.0 in Wikapedia Web2.0 has also been referred to as “participatory Web” and the “Semantic Web”.

The term refers to a set of second-generation Web-based services which include social networking sites, blogs, social bookmarking and wikis.

Jared Spool in Web 2.0: The Power Behind the Hype points out that

Web 2.0 isn’t a ‘thing’, but a collection of approaches, which are all converging on the development world at a rapid pace. These approaches, including APIs, RSS, Folksonomies, and Social Networking, suddenly give application developers a new way to approach hard problems with surprisingly effective results.

These services emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.

Often organised and categorized by tag based folksonomies.

Creating and distributing Web content is based on a model/philosophy which is characterised by open communication and decentralization of authority.

In Now It’s Your Turn Time magazine suggests that

… individuals are changing the nature of the information age, that the creators and consumers of user-generated content are transforming art and politics and commerce, that they are the engaged citizens of a new digital democracy.

Also see Nicholas Carr’s critical piece The amorality of Web 2.0

Richard MacManus and Joshua Porter have teased out the implications for web designers in Web 2.0 for Designers. They say that Web2.0 is:

a vision of the Web in which information is broken up into “microcontent” units that can be distributed over dozens of domains. The Web of documents has morphed into a Web of data. We are no longer just looking to the same old sources for information. Now we’re looking to a new set of tools to aggregate and remix microcontent in new and useful ways.
These tools, the interfaces of Web 2.0, will become the frontier of design innovation.

Class discussion pointing to visual artists and designer makers who are using blogs.

For finding other blogs check out Google blog search

Other discussion examples

Resources for artists

  • DeviantArt is an artist community many students already know of or use. If you have not already investigated it do so, as they have a free and premium account options. Both allows you to view and submit artwork.
  • Renderosity is a community for digital artists. There are loads of resources on the site but you can also display and sell digital art.
  • Artmajeur.com You can sell art directly through their online gallery for free. A free account gives you access to an artists gallery, your own mailing list, upload up to 1000 images, visitor stats, guest book, search engine indexing and a lot more.
  • ArtistPortfolio.net is an online portfolio and directory for artists. The service includes free art directory listings, free webspace, free email accounts and online portfolio creation
  • The Untapped Source Online gallery interested in emerging artists. They sell high quality prints of artists work and split the proceeds.
  • The Vision Grove combines social software tools to aid networking and promotion of your work. However you are only allowed 5 images
  • AbsoluteArts.com Is a database for artists worldwide. They offer free and premium plans for building an online portfolio. The Free plan allows 4 images but since the site is also a rich resource site I have listed it here.

I would like everyone to read Seth Godin’s Small is the New Big