Evolution With web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site gives its users the free choice to interact or collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators (prosumers) of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (consumers) are limited to the passive viewing of content that was created for them. Examples of Web 2.0 include social-networking sites, blogs, wikis, video-sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies.
The term is closely associated with Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but rather to cumulative changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web. Whether Web 2.0 is qualitatively different from prior web technologies has been challenged by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, who called the term a "piece of jargon”. Precisely because he intended the Web in his vision as "a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write". He called it the 'Read/Write Web'.
The term "Web 2.0" was coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, a consultant on electronic information design (information architecture). In her article, "Fragmented Future", DiNucci writes:
The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfulls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfulls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will appear on your computer screen; on your TV set your car dashboard your cell phone hand-held game machines maybe even your microwave oven.
Since that time, Web 2.0 has found a place in the lexicon; in 2009 Global Language Monitor declared it to be the one-millionth English word.

NEW TRENDS AND LATEST MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES 

The advent of Web 2.0 technologies that incorporate user-generated content and streamlined web design has fundamentally changed the way consumers’ access news and information. These technologies also represent a new way of thinking about the Internet. Rather than using the Internet as a passive tool for viewing content, new media technologies incorporate the idea that users will take an active and collaborative role in communication and information exchange. These digital tools are also becoming common workplace applications. State Department employees are free to add and edit articles, further evidence of how collaborative technologies are valued tools for even large institutions. On the technical side, the convergence of media onto internet devices like computers and mobile phones means that many people—particularly younger demographics—are already consuming and interacting with the news, broadcast, and entertainment media in different ways. Understanding these changes involves much more than simply thinking about “new media” in terms of blogs or internet messaging boards because it involves a confluence of technology with media. When youth use a social networking platform like Facebook to send or share news articles, they are not simply reading information with a new technology; they are accessing, interacting, and often promoting the news through that technology.

Social Media One of the hallmarks of new media is the way in which the technologies interactively engage their users. The tagline of this approach to digital media is that it functions as a “process, not a product” where users participate in content creation rather than merely consuming it. Not only do new media audiences expect to find their news and information over the internet and on mobile phones, but they expect to comment on news stories, rate the quality of that news, and share it with friends online. They may also participate directly in news generation by posting analysis or reporting on local issues on blogs or even sending SMS text messages about a house fire or traffic accident to traditional news outlets. This type of “user-generated content” signals a more dynamic, malleable form of media or "social media" that is driven by links to other websites. The following examples help to explain several of these kinds of social media: Social Bookmarking: These sites allow users to rate, organize, and share news content and information with others. Websites such as Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit have become news portals where user ratings determine which stories are featured. In this way users and news consumers are learning ways to drive news coverage and influence traditional media. Major news organizations including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are adapting their websites to include applications to allow readers to share and rate their stories. Social Networking Sites Wikis: Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia from which they derive their name, defines Wikis as, “a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content.” Furthermore, they “are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.” The most important thing to remember is that they provide terms generated by and for specific communities sharing interests. These applications are part of a broader technological trend. The sites allow users to manipulate and change content on the page—adding, editing, or even deleting entries and text. The “product” here is never quite finished, because it is always in the process of being changed to include new information. Blogs: These web publishing formats allow users to easily generate content for online viewing. Blogs have dramatically reduced the resources needed to reach a large audience. In so doing, they have simultaneously created networks or “blogospheres” of individual publishers covering nearly every topic conceivable. These sites often function as a back-and-forth conversation—writers incorporating content from mainstream media and other blog sources, while readers can post comments and writers can respond. There are several web sites dedicated to the searching of blogs, such as Technorati, IceRocket and Google Blogsearch. Many blog search engines will measure trends in blog content, which can be useful for tracking the efficacy of other programs, including those emphasizing outreach.


Twitter is a microblogging platform and social networking site that allows users to post updates via SMS text message. Users can network with others so that they also receive the updates of their friends via text message. The application itself has come to signal the way technologies are converging around mobile phones—“Twitter” is not only the best known microblogging service, but also a commonly used verb to describe the process of microblogging via SMS. BlogTalkRadio: This website represents the experimentation and convergence taking place around social media. The site allows users to broadcast call-in talk radio shows with an internet connection and a phone. By using a social networking platform in which users have individual profiles and can call in to the host, these sites create a new type of spoken interactivity where the radio host converses with users from around the world over the internet. MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games): These online games create virtual social spaces where users can interact with others using a virtual identity or “avatar.” The “games” have implications for development because they can easily create a venue or location for social interaction or education. USAID is currently experimenting with gaming to teach youth life skills and encourage positive interaction with others.
New Media and Advocacy Leveraging new media technologies for advocacy is also proving successful. Since the infrastructure of mobile technology already reaches half the planet, it makes sense for development organizations to utilize these common devices. According to Mobile Active, an international network of people promoting the use of mobile phones for social change and development, mobile phones are being used in innovative ways to aid in election monitoring, voter registration campaigns, as well as developing advocacy campaigns to address issues ranging from healthcare to environmental issues. Social Networking The use of social networking sites has, of course, centered on American youth culture. This is because the first sites to be developed like Friendster, Orkut, and Hi5 were largely aimed at teenagers and other intensive internet users. Sites like MySpace were initially created so that music groups could easily post their work online and connect with their potential fan bases. MySpace has a global reach of over 7 percent of internet users and is regularly ranked as one of the top global sites being accessed, according to Alexa. A online profiles with social networking sites and access the sites frequently to keep in touch with friends as well as share and create online content.2 While no similar data is available for the internet rankings of social networking sites throughout the region suggest similar trends.