Web 2.0 is so "Web 2.0"

Okay, I officially hate the term Web 2.0, and it's not because of any of the previous reasons other folks hated it.

I hate it because it's so- Web 2.0. As in yesterday. The growth and strength of the cloud computing format has evolved so much in the last two years, that I have trouble using this term any longer. Web 2.0 is old, it's used, and it's over. Are we into Web 3.0? No- and we shouldn't use that term either. Know why? Because it will be over tomorrow. The terminology evokes a feeling of AOL 4.0, 5.0, etc. I assure you nobody will be receiving a CD in the mail with Web 3.0 on it anytime soon.

The Web is evolving into something that we cannot predict. Google Wave, Google Voice, the CrunchPad, iPhone, The Apple Tablet, Google OS, Web Apps... there really is just no predicting how these devices or tools will change our communication or productivity habits over the next few years. Who would have predicted 10 years ago that the "Google" company would be more relevant than Microsoft or AOL Time-Warner? Who could have predicted that social networking would help millions of old friends reunite online?

How do we predict what will happen tomorrow? Next year Google Wave could be allowing us to "wave" at each other all over the world and could, once again, morph how we communicate. The "2.0, 3.0, 4.0" way of describing the current Web hearkens back to a time when computing was app-based, meaning you bought a software app, uploaded it to your computer and used it. Computing is becoming Web-app based, and there is no known nomenclature that this really fits into.

So- what would we call it? How would we frame the current state of the Web? My first thought is: The Internets. That sounds funny, right? When you say it- it's a joke on George Bush, but you know what? The Web is now plural. The Web is no longer a network, it is a million networks, social networks, image networks, media networks, video networks, and the more I hear Jon Stewart or Keith Olbermann use it as a joke, the more it sounds normal. I hate to give George Bush credit for anything, but his propensity to screw up the English language served him right here.

In the old Midwest, around Chicago, adding plurals to certain words is just what we do.

Daughter: "Where are you going, Mommy?"
Mom: "I'm going to the Jewel's." (Jewel is a supermarket here in Chicago)

Son: "Dad, where do the Bears play?"
Dad: "They play at Soldiers Field." (It's Soldier Field)

The habit of making the terms plural, I think, gives the places more meaning, and implies ownership to an entity that doesn't appear to be owned by anyone (who is Jewel?). Why go to Soldier Field?; surely the field was named for more than one soldier.

Okay, so you don't like that one, but you feel like you still need to classify the Web. Maybe you'd like something a little more cerebral. Since the Web is like an evolution of a species, it could follow the stages of our own evolutionary theory. This would follow these stages:

• Hadeon- Earth forms, gets hit by meteors and sets the stage for life as we know it.
  
• Archean- Bacteria develop primitive forms of photosynthesis. Photosynthetic cyanobacteria evolve.
  
• Proterozoic- Eukaryotic cells appear, Cambrian explosion, modern phyla of animals appear.
  
• Phanerozoic, which then includes: Literally the "period of well-displayed life.
  
• Paleozoic- Earth begins to look recognizable as we know it.
  
• Mesozoic- First evidence of viruses is noticeable.
  
• Cenozoic- Anatomically modern humans appear in Africa.

If we use these stages it might make more sense because we know that the Web is still forming, very much like the Earth was in the Hadeon Eon. How it takes shape in the years to come and compares to photosynthesis- I have no idea. This formation may take decades, centuries, eons, who knows? This is really absurd, though, isn't it? Trying to classify the Organic Web while it is evolving is backwards. You look back on it after it's all over, not while it's happening. For you cerebral types feel free to call this the Hadeon Era of the Web, or the Hadeon Web.

Me- I'm sticking with - (drawl) - The Internets.



Thanks to clickfarmer for the AOL photo.
Thanks to wikipedia for the Tree of Life photo.

Remember when we were all scared of Cloud computing?

It seems like only yesterday (okay last year) when we were rambling on about how Google Apps and all of these Web 2.0 companies were going to take our data and flush it down the toilet once they ran out of money. (And for that matter, remember when Discovery Streaming was the next thing to buttered toast?)

Well, what a difference one summer can make.

After trolling the Bloggers Cafe at NECC '09 in Washington DC, eating at Google's micro-kitchen at Google Teacher Academy in, Boulder, CO- I must say that I didn't hear death knells for data, people weren't measuring coffins for school districts' tech admins, and it felt as the keys were left in the door to the walled garden and nobody worried.

Google has made such a strong showing since they introduced Wave, and are ramping up Google Apps for Ed even more this year with more support, more qualified districts, and with more companies using them. Tech educators seem generally confident that their data is safe with Google. As for the other Web 2.o companies, well you need only visit TechCrunch's Deadpool or look at the below image to see how the Web 2.0 world is changing. Google recently made the NEA's list of tech tool must-haves for this year, so don't worry- Google's got your back.

If Cloud Computing is finally in- what's out?

• Terms like: Web 2.0, 21st Century Literacy
• Discovery Streaming- sorry, but still no embedding? Blah. National Geographic has some embeddable video; I'll go there.
• Hosted LMSs like Moodle and Blackboard. I'll be the first in line for "Moodle the Web-app."
• Microsoft Word, though it was out last year too.
  
• Flash Drives- how many do have that are sitting in a drawer?
• Cable in the Classroom
  

Feel Safe With Google Apps for Ed

Gotta say, with all the teachers I talked to this summer who shared Google Documents with me, collaborated on presentations, went to PD seminars- Google has got the buzz. I met folks who wanted to look at my Android phone, mostly because they wanted to see my Google Voice App, or see how Google has integrated their Apps into mobile phones. I'm excited to finally be able to use Google Docs with our students this year, and I don't feel worried that I'll lose info, at least from Google anyway.

Here's how The Cloud helped me this year:

• When my district email went down, I was the only employee that forward my district mail to Gmail. So for two days, I was the only one that still received my email, and was able to function, thanks to Gmail.
• Both of my computers crashed this summer- iMac G5 and laptop. Thankfully, most of my documents, even my taxes, were saved in the Cloud, whether at Google Docs or TurboTax online. I was never without a resource for my documents. I even uploaded a batch of photos to photobucket.com and saved those as well.

So, I would say, the Cloud saved me more than once this year. Remember when it was all so scary?

Dead Web 2.0








































Thanks to Meg Pickard on flickr for the Web 2.0 image.
Thanks to flattop341 on flickr for the coffin image.