Why bother with Web 2.0?

Why not?

Instead of listing the many benefits that Web 2.0 applications can bring (which I will go into when looking at particular apps). I think that archivists should show a willingness to give Web 2.0 a try. Many of the applications are free and easy to use so are perfect to experiment with.

Moreover, the opportunities that Web 2.0 technologies offer are not a threat to core professional values, instead they offer a more exciting and dynamic way of engaging with users.

If that hasn't persuaded you, how about this statement, given as the reason for engaging with Web 2.0 at the Brooklyn Museum:
"the era of control is over: you can either stay in the bunker, or you can try and participate. And to not participate is criminal"

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is tricky to define and there are numerous definitions around. These have ranged from the short “Web 2.0: it’s people” by David Sifry in 2006 to a much longer definition originally provided by Tim O’Reilly in 2005.

Rather than get bogged down in the technicalities of what Web 2.0 is, I prefer to think of it as an umbrella term that covers the many different ways we can engage with the web. My interpretation of it is that it fundamentally represents a change in the way that we interact with the web. It has given us technologies that are interactive, participatory and dependent on content provided by the user. This has resulted in a much better experience and applications that are more fun.

On a personal level my use of Web 2.0 revolves around facebook, flickr, netvibes, blogger. These are just a few of the technologies that are out there, the picture below shows some logos of other applications. In this blog I'm going to focus on the Web 2.0 applications that archives can make use of and why they should do so.
A montage of Web 2.0 logos assembled by Stabilo Boss.

Welcome

Hopefully this blog will do what it says on the tin and watch out for items on the web that may be of interest to archivists and records managers.

I intend to focus on Web 2.0 technologies, look at what they can do for archives and point to some of the excellent examples of Web 2.0 uses in archives and the wider information management/heritage sectors.

In addition, this blog will help me to gather my thoughts and keep track of the items I plan to discuss as part of my presentation at the Society of Archivists conference in August.