I first heard about weblogs—which are more commonly referred to by the abbreviated moniker blog—at the 2002 Computers in Libraries Conference. In 2003, while working at the St. Joseph County Public Library (SJCPL) in Indiana, I created the SJCPL Book Blog, as well as the Sights & Sounds Blog. At the same time, I began a personal blog and discovered RSS and IM technology. On May 10, 2004, I uploaded my first picture to Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/31252) of my Labradors Jake and Charlie.

In late 2004, I came across the term Web 2.0 for the first time on a blog, whose author was reporting from something called the “Web 2.0 Conference.” For some time I had been using and thinking about these Web applications for libraries—including RSS, blogs, wikis, tagging, bookmarking—all fell under the Web 2.0 meme.

Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., defines the term:

Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an “architecture of participation,” and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.¹

“Web 2.0 for Librarians” www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2005/09/web-20-for-librarians.html

Michael Stephens's First Flickr Upload www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/31252

ALA TechSource Blog Posts by Michael Stephen www.techsource.ala.org/blog/Michael/Stephens/100004

In “What Is Web 2.0?” O'Reilly goes on to discuss the differences between Web 1.0 sites and those that fall under the banner of Web 2.0 sites.²Figure 1—reproduced from Tim O'Reilly's September 30, 2005, Web article—illustrates this point.

For example, the photo gallery Web site Ofoto (www.ofoto.com), which is now owned by Kodak, identified in Figure 1 as “Web 1.0,” was very much a one-way, share-photo-galleries-with-friends site. Flickr (www.flickr.com), by contrast, features many more interactive features, such as allowing users to leave comments, tag images to describe the content of their uploaded images, and take advantage of RSS feeds, which tells Flickr users that something new has been uploaded or posted to a Flickr site. I characterize sites such as Flickr as venues for self-expression and making connections—in other words, Flickr and similarly designed sites constitute communities comprised of distinct members contributing to a collective effort or project.

“Web 2.0: Compact Definition?” http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/10/web_20_compact_definition.html

“What Is Web 2.0? Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software” www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Wikipedia's entry for Web 2.0 has a vast and rich history of changes, corrections, improvements, and reversals. Wikipedia's collective voice—reflecting that of the myriad voices of its authors—define Web 2.0 as “a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online.” Comprised of some new applications and back-end programming wizardry (such as AJAX—Asynchro-nous JavaScript and XML—and “Ruby on Rails” [www.rubyonrails.com]), Web 2.0 applications include blogs, wikis, social-interaction sites such as the image-sharing community Flickr, and bookmarking sites such as Delicious (http://del.icio.us). (A list of more than nine hundred Web 2.0 companies is available at www.econsultant.com/web2/index.html.)

Wikipedia's “Web 2.0” Definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Wikipedia's Definition of “Tags” (in relation to Web 2.0) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tags

Wikipedia's Definition of “Podcasts” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasts

Ruby on Rails www.rubyonrails.com

Wikipedia, however, offers a caveat: the definition is ever changing: “To some extent Web 2.0 is a buzzword, incorporating whatever is newly popular on the Web (such as tags and podcasts), and its meaning is still in flux.” The entry does, however, pull together O'Reilly's thoughts (as well as those of other notable thinkers), including this breakdown of what Web 2.0 tools can include:

• The transition of Web sites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming a computing platform serving Web applications to end users
• A social phenomenon referring to an approach to creating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and reuse, and “the market as a conversation”
• A more organized and categorized content, with a far more developed, deeplinking Web architecture
• A shift in economic value of the Web, possibly surpassing that of the dot-com boom of the late 1990s
• A marketing term to differentiate new Web businesses from those of the dot-com boom, which due to the bust now seem discredited
• The resurgence of excitement around the possibilities of innovative Web applications and services that gained a lot of momentum around mid-2005³

Paul Miller, Technology Evangelist for the U.K.-based ILS vendor TALIS company, explored Web 2.0 and libraries in an article for the online journal Ariadne. In “Web 2.0: Building the New Library,” he presents his own principles of Web 2.0 and addresses how these changes might impact libraries.⁴ His principles include:

• Web 2.0 is about communication and facilitating community.
• Web 2.0 is about remix.
• Web 2.0 is smart.
• Web 2.0 opens up the Long Tail.
• Web 2.0 is built upon trust.

Jenny Levine, “The Shifted Librarian” (www.theshiftedlibrarian.com), and I have been touring the country for the last few months presenting the workshop, “Conversation, Community, Connections, and Collaboration: Practical, New Technologies for User-Centered Services—or the Social Software and Libraries Roadshow.” In a section called “Becoming a Trendspotter,” we discuss keeping tabs on what's happening outside our libraries in mainstream culture. When new technology or new trends hit the mainstream press—Time, Newsweek, or USA Today, among others—is it already too late for librarians to be taking notice and thinking about how such technologies could impact library services?

Still, we were extremely excited about a recent Newsweek cover story (“The New Wisdom of the Web”) that touted the insurgence of the new World Wide Web—a new Web made up of social connections and interactions centered around music, images, or other content—a place overflowing with self-expression!⁵ Authors Steven Levy and Brad Stone interview numerous key players about this new Web, including various entrepreneurs who seek to capitalize on the movement:

The generic term for this movement, especially among the hundreds of new companies jamming the waiting rooms of venture-capital offices, is Web 2.0, but that's misleading—some supposedly Web 1.0 companies like eBay and Google have been clueful about this all along. A more fitting description comes from Mary Hodder, the CEO of a social-video-sharing start-up called Dabble. “This is the live Web,” she says.

“The New Wisdom of the Web” www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12015774/site/newsweek

Online NW: Keynote Speaker Paul Bausch http://litablog.org/2006/02/16/online-nw-keynote-speaker-paul-bausch

Paul Bausch, co-creator and developer of Blogger, a free blog-hosting service, recently keynoted the annual “Northwest Online” meeting, a conference aimed at library technologists in the Pacific Northwest. He described three defining aspects of Web 2.0: openness, decentralization, and participation.⁶ What Web 2.0 tools offer is a way to be open, to share content on various Web sites, and to engage others in building resources.

David Warlick builds on Bausch's ideas by describing the flow of information within this new platform:

Traditionally, information flowed in one or two directions. Through the new Web, content flows in a variety of directions that depend on the behavior of those who produce the information and those who use it. Through Web 2.0 new information constructs are possible—interactive and community contributed documents that tie in with dynamic and independent digital libraries of web resources, and the more formally published ideas of thinkers and journalists in the field—and none of these people need know each other.⁷

There's a comparable quiet revolution underway right now, one that is likely to fundamentally transform the way we use the Web in the coming years … the result is the equivalent of a massive software upgrade for the entire Web, what some commentators have taken to calling Web 2.0. Essentially, the Web is shifting from an international library of interlinked pages to an information ecosystem, where data circulate like nutrients in a rain forest.

Steve Johnson, “Web 2.0 Arrives,” Discover, www.discover.com/issues/oct-05/departments/emerging-technology

Web 2.0 affords connections among people, people who can create content—ideas, thoughts, and full-blown theories—can connect with those who may respond, augment, and redistribute that content in new ways. Other names for Web 2.0 include the “Two-Way Web,” the “Read/Write Web,” and the “Participatory Web”—all pointing to the fact that this incarnation of the Web is not made up of static pages and one-way interaction.

The August 2005 issue of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review focused on social software. The editors presented their take on social tools, the magazine, and the future:

The spread of cheap laptops, handheld devices, affordable Internet access, Wi-Fi, and a dozen other consumer technologies have led to a wonderful explosion of new social applications for them. But here's the really interesting thing: most of these social technologies have simple editing and programming tools that let ordinary folks do innovative things that risk-averse corporations and government agencies would be hesitant to try. We suspect that Technology Review will be writing about the impact of new technologies on society much more frequently. Besides, social technologies are more fun.⁸

Librarian and blog author David King, current acting IT Director at the Kansas City (Missouri) Public Library, has also been teaching Web 2.0 classes. In a recent post (“Another Web 2.0 Class Tomorrow”) on his blog, he noted he was changing the course to define some of the commonalities of social software.⁹ This post provides a useful starting point as well. Many of the tools—such as RSS feeds, comments, tags—discussed here have similar features. For an overview of the tools and the commonalities among them, see the Glossary of Web 2.0 terms (beginning on page 13).

I feel this way about libraries, too. We've figured out the hardware issues, and I don't anticipate we're going to face any major, unforeseen challenges in this area over the next decade (more cell phones, more smartphones, more wireless, faster computers, we get it). The key is no longer the hardware, but the software, and in particular, what people do with the software. This year was a pretty good indication of where all of this is headed, and I truly believe we'll look back on this time as a pivotal one when this new software put us on a different path.

Jenny Levine, Post on the ALA TechSource Blog, www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2005/11/libraries-as-social-machines.html

Stephen Abram, library futurist and vice president of innovation at SirsiDynix, describes the attributes of the next-generation librarian in his SirsiDynix OneSource article, “Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World.” Abram writes, “Librarian 2.0 is the guru of the information age.”¹³ He states that Librarian 2.0 strives to:

• Understand the power of the Web 2.0 opportunities;
• Learn the major tools of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0;
• Connect users to expert discussions, conversations, and communities of practice and participates there as well;
• Use and develop advanced social networks to enterprise advantage;
• Connect with everyone using their communication modes of choice—telephone, Skype, IM, SMS (short message system), texting, e-mail, virtual reference, etc.;
• Encourage user-driven metadata and user-developed content and commentary; and
• Understand the wisdom of crowds and the emerging roles and impacts of the blogosphere, Web syndicasphere, and wikisphere.

He concludes with a charge to the profession:

It is essential that we start preparing to become Librarian 2.0 now. The Web 2.0 movement is laying the groundwork for exponential business growth and another major shift in the way our users live, work, and play. We have the ability, insight, and knowledge to influence the creation of this new dynamic—and guarantee the future of our profession. Librarian 2.0—now.

Combine this with the handful of library-job descriptions that appeared in early 2006 (www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/candrlnews/caropps/february2006/NextGenerationLibrarian.htm). Wayne State University advertised for a “NextGen Librarian,” asking that applicants come in the door already familiar with social software and ready to train other librarians to use the technologies as well:

This is a newly created position that will provide leadership and vision for “transformative technologies” in the provision of library resources and services. Reporting to the Director of Public Services the incumbent: creates communication venues and distributes content via digital tools such as blogs and wikis for the library system Web site; develops and delivers library instruction through podcasts and multimedia webcasts; promotes community via new technologies within the library and virtually via IM and other emerging communication mechanisms; enhances the WSU Library System Web presence with current content and methods for distribution such as RSS; investigates and implements new technologies that may enhance the Library System's Web presence; provides training and support for other librarians on new technologies; maintains currency in information technology, librarianship, and instructional design; collaborates with other librarians to develop shared resources in support of the Libraries' mission and strategic directions; collaborates with other librarians to perform outreach and communicate information about the Libraries' online resources and services to clients; participate positively as a member of working groups and teams to develop/implement policies and procedures, facilitate decision-making, resolve problems, implement assigned projects, improve customer service and ensure smooth delivery of services; communicates effectively and positively with unit management, with colleagues in other units and with colleagues within the unit to provide effective and efficient services that meet customer needs and promote a positive team environment; generates funding through grant and foundation proposals; and performs other duties typically assigned to librarians in Public Services (virtual reference, instruction, etc).¹⁴

Other libraries have followed suit, incorporating these technologies into job duties. It's important to remember that other new technology skills—CD-ROM use, HTML, LAN configuration, and Internet instruction come to mind—were rather striking as well when they were introduced into libraries and library-job descriptions. So, although this shift to new duties and skills may just be part of an ongoing movement toward what is new and “hot,” if you will, it is still a very notable shift to openness, conversation, and participation.

The best thing any librarian can do is to learn more about these tools and how they figure into our professional lives and our libraries. Learning to learn and taking time to play with such tools as Web 2.0 social software lay the groundwork for embracing the next big technological innovations.