My company is moving into Web 2.0...What do do?

I had an interesting question yesterday in my inbox. I thought I would share the question and my answer to it. When I look at my answer now I see I may have gone a tab overboard on what the developer was looking for, but hey it made a good blog article!

The Question

My company is looking at moving into Web 2.0 in the near future. What can I do now to prepare for this? Do I need to look into Ajax? What can you recommend me doing so I can be ahead of the game?

My Answer

Web 2.0 is not solely about Ajax as a lot of people tend to believe. Ajax is one small piece that makes up the whole idea behind Web 2.0. Now there are all of these fancy definitions and explanations of what Web 2.0 is. If you want to read what O'Reilly had to say about it, look at this article: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.

What I say Web 2.0 is this:
A Web 2.0 style of application changes a way a user is able to get their hands on information and spread its wealth. The application can be customized to a certain extent to meet the user's exact needs while doing it in a way that is not painful! It allows users to recommend information and spread their wealth and knowledge around making your site stronger with a minimum amount of effort on your part and the users.

Now I may have lost you with my definition. But lets look at some examples that are out on the net now.

Look at models like Netflix. All of my friend's can recommend DVDs to me that they loved or hated. I can rate movies and what I rate gives me suggestions on other things that are like it. I can pick a movie and they suggest others that fall into the same category. I have seen some great stuff I never heard of because of this wealth of information.

Wikis are a great example of a Web 2.0 type of application. Tons of information generated by users based around a very simple idea. Content is being generated all of the time by people that were not in the group of people that started it. Heck even articles that are not popular are really important to that site. If an unpopular article is found on a search engine, that is one user that comes to your site. Now if you have 1000's of these unpopular articles, that is 1000's of user's that you would have never seen. So the unpopular is actually popular when you look at it in this way. (If you want more info on this look into "The Long Tail"). Plus most wikis do not use Ajax! Hence why Ajax is only a piece of Web 2.0 that is not really needed. (But it does help!)

A Web 2.0 application is not solely a web application either. Apple’s Itunes application is considered a Web 2.0 application. It is ground breaking in the way we look for music from our personal PCs at home!

Now that I have you scratching your head with "Does my boss know this?" You may want to forward him and the rest of the team this email to understand what Web 2.0 is.

I will give you a few pointers to get ahead in the development. One big thing with Web 2.0 applications is having your components being able to work independently. A lot of traditional applications required you to do A than B than C all the way to Z to get something done. This may not be the correct way for everyone to fill out a form or perform actions on your site. A Web 2.0 would allow a user to customize the way they approach this form.

From personal experience I have worked on applications with the Army when I did contract work for them. The General says it has to be coded this way. The people in the field must do step A first, Step B second and so on. So we code the application, send it to the testers in the field and they say. I code C first and when I get into the office I do A and B since you need to run the test first. With a Web 2.0 application you would probably not run into this type of situation with a modular type of look and feel.

Again, Web 2.0 from my point of view is allowing the user to get to and use information faster and easier. So what you probably need to look at is: how can I make this site easier to use? Can I break up long steps so they can be done individually? Can I incorporate Ajax or some other technique to get data to the user in a seamless manner? Is there some way I can add a feedback mechanism that can get the word out to the developers and their family, friends, strangers, etc?

Trust me; there is nothing better than peer to peer advertising of your information. Look at the viral effect MySpace has on people. Most of that traffic to that site comes from the free advertising! People say "Look at my page" or "Did you see that" or "Oh my god look at that weird chick!" You can not pay for that type of advertising in this world. I know I can not go through a day and not hear the words myspace or Google Video or YouTube!

So hopefully I did not confuse you too much! I know you were probably expecting something totally different to appear in your inbox. Something more on the lines of: Yeah, read about Ajax and make sure you do this and that when you do it.

Web 2.0 is more than Ajax. Web 2.0 is basically imitating what you and I do everyday in our life. We set up a routine so it is easy for us to follow and maintain. That is what Web 2.0 is about! (Oh don't forget about Beta and reflective logos!)

Eric Pascarello
Coauthor of Ajax In Action
Moderator of HTML/JavaScript at www.JavaRanch.com
Author of: JavaScript: Your Visual Blueprint for building Dynamic Web Pages