Group 7 – WEB 2.

1
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Dheepak J

CONTENTS Priyank Daga

Satrajit Chakraborty
1.0 INTRODUCTION Abhijit Pachorkar
Anup Kataria 5
2.0 EVOLUTION OF THE Manish Mahnot WORLD WIDE WEB
Madhvi Gupta 5
2.1 What was Web Anukhya Buddharaju 1.0?
Jim Kim 6
2.2 What Web 2.0 has Shreya Jain enabled?
Sharathchandra Kamath 6
2.3
Web 2.0 has
enabled data
mashups

8
3.0 KEY

TECHNOLOGIES OF WEB 2.0 9 3.1

Blogs 10
3.1.1 Business Insight of Blogs 10
3.1.2 Blog Mining 11
3.2 Wikis 12

2
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

3.2.1 Business Insights of Wikis 12

3.3 RSS 13
3.3.1 Business Insight of RSS 14
4.0 KEY ASPECTS OF WEB 2.0 14
5.0 BUSINESS IMPACTS OF WEB 2.0 15
5.1 Reducing the Cost of Customer Care 15
5.2 The Financial Impact of Web 2.0 16
5.3 Some Examples of Web 2.0 in Business 17
6.0 WEB 2.0 FACILITATING THE OVERALL BUSINESS EFFICIENCY 18
6.1 Better Customer and Supplier Relationships 18
6.2 Comparative Advantage to firms 19
6.3 New Avenues to Serve Customer Better 19
6.4 Innovations in Security 20
7.0 WEB 2.0 AND SECURITY 21
7.1 Preventive Measures 22
7.2 Security Implications in Social Networking Sites 22
7.3 Measures to Prevent Security/Privacy Attacks 23
8.0 LOOKING AHEAD – THE FUTURE OF WEB 2.0 23
8.1 The Emerging Field of Web Science 24
8.2 The Continued Development of the Web as Platform 24
8.3 Trust, Privacy, Security and Social Networks 24
8.4 Web 2.0 and SOA 25
9.0 WEB 3.0 26
9.1 Semantic Wikis 27
9.2 Semantic Blogging 27
9.3 Semantic Desktop 27
9.4 Web 2.0 VS Web 3.0 28
10.0 REFERENCES 28
11.0 GLOSSARY 29
ANNEXURE – 1: Moving towards Web 2.0 30
ANNEXURE – 2: Web 2.0 Landscape 31
ANNEXURE – 3: How to add an RSS feed to your reader 32

3
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

ANNEXURE – 4: RSS and Web 2.0 33

FIGURES and TABLES USED IN THE REPORT

Figure 2.1: Evolution of the World Wide Web 5

Figure 2.2: The Web 1.0 Participation Model 6
Figure 2.3: Web 2.0 Participation Model 7
Figure 2.4: A sample application/data mashup 8
Table 2.1: Comparison Between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 9
Figure 3.1: How RSS works 13
Figure 3.2: Where Web 2.0 will be applied 17
Figure 8.1: SOA and Web 2.0 25
Figure 8.2: Web 3.0 framework 26

4
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

WEB 2.0
VIEWING WEB AS A PLATFORM NOT AS A SERVICE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The word Web 2.0 does not refer to any technology as such. It just refers to the way how we
have changed our usage of the World Wide Web. In the earlier period of internet (now known
as Web 1.0) website were used like phone books, encyclopaedias and the sorts. Web 2.0 has
enabled the usage of Web as a platform for development of new programs and interactive
tools. However, its definition is greatly dependent on how users implement these functions.

2.0 EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB

During the past two decades, the world has witnessed a technological revolution that has
provided a totally new medium of communications entirely new to mankind. What is known
today as the World Wide Web (WWW), grew out of a project for the US Department of
Defense that began with a different intent in the late 1960s. The purpose of the Network was
to study how researchers could share data with each other, and how communications could
be maintained/sustained in the event of a nuclear attack. This project was presided by the
American Research and Projects Association (ARPA) and later came to be known as the
ARPANET.

The ARPANET evolved with time and was eventually turned over to the National Science
Foundation Figure 2.1:ultimately
(NSF) and Evolution of the
became World
known as Wide
“Internet” which the NSF allowed
Web
5
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

access to businesses, universities, and individuals. Thus, in 1992 the World Wide Web was
launched.

2.1 What was Web 1.0?

Presented below is the participation model of the classic web or Web 1.0, as it is better
known today.

Site
Owner

Site
Visitors

Figure 2.2: The Web 1.0 participation

model

The Web 1.0 model portrayed Web as a static medium. Here, the site owner creates content
in basic HTML pages and posted this content on the Web page. This Web site was accessed
by the site visitors for informative purposes. The visitors gave feedback and suggestions to
the site owners through the “Contact Us” link on the website. The site owner used this data
to add/modify content on the website. Here, the role of the user was just an information-
seeker and the website was more like an information portal i.e. much like an online telephone
directory or encyclopaedia, which divided the WWW into usable directories. In short, the
website was static in nature with each one allocated their own corner in the cyberspace and it
lacked user-interaction, context and scalability.

2.2 What Web 2.0 has enabled?

Web 1.0 laid the foundation for the technological revolution that occurred during the
transition of the century. Many technologies like RSS, SOAP, Weblogs, SaaS, Social
Networking, etc. modified the way the people started using the Web – from that of a platform
6
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

to as a Service. Finally, in 2004, Tim O’Reilly coined the term Web 2.0 to indicate this
change of usage and to define the various other ways in which the Web can be used in future.

While Web 1.0 used internet pages written in HTML describing the form and content of the
web page, Web 2.0 is a combination of applications that run directly from the internet rather
than on the user’s computer. These applications are written in AJAX (Asynchronous
JavaScript and XML). XML facilitates automated data exchange and describes only the
content of the website. Asynchronous JavaScript enables real-time updating of websites. For
example, when a friend writes a scrap for you in Orkut, you can see it appearing in fraction
of a second on your scrapbook.

Google is probably the best-known vendor of such an approach, with its “Google Apps”
providing simple-but-adequate word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation capabilities
that compete with traditional PC-based products like Microsoft Office.

The figure above shows the Web 2.0 participation model. Here, the service provider has to
make available the technology platform as well as facilitate the knowledge exchange by a set
of formalized guidelines. However all creation of content like music, video, etc is done by
the user. The user can also embed third party content and link on the website.
For example, Digg publishes news stories from around the web. Users contribute their own
news stories as well as noting other publications’ stories and all users “digg” or rate them.
The Diggers also add comments to the stories and rate the comments of others, too,
determining the stories’ prominence on the site. The more users who contribute and rate
Figure 2.3: Web 2.0 Participation
stories and comments, the more effective the service gets.
Model
Hence, Web 2.0 can be summarized as a combination of technologies, business practices, and
social trends that facilitate the individual creation, control, and sharing of content on the
Internet. The most fundamental requirement for Web 2.0 is high speed internet which was
not available a decade ago. The evolution of broadband internet in developing countries has
given the biggest platform for Web 2.0 applications (programs).

2.3 Web 2.0 has enabled data mashups

7
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Users add content or create content like new applications, embedding video, etc. to the
webpage by a mashup. A mashup is created by combining APIs. API stands for Application
Processor Interface. APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software
applications i.e. APIs are the basic building blocks of an Application. APIs are generally
open source codes available freely on the internet. The user can put these blocks together to
build a custom application that can run on the web. A user can also modify an API to create a
custom application. When the user merges two different APIs to create a new application, it
results in a mashup, which is an integrated online offering.

For example, a user can use the RSS feed API of New York Times to identify the locations in
his pin code where crimes took place recently. By mapping this API with the API of Google
maps, the user can create a new application in his blog/webpage that displays the locations of
crime on the Map. A search result of the application would look like the picture shown in
Figure 2.4

Figure 2.4: A sample application/data

mashup
TABLE 2.1: Comparison between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Web1.0 Web 2.0

(1993-2003) (2003- beyond)
Pretty much HTML pages viewed through a
browser Web pages, plus a lot of other “content” shared
over the web, with more interactivity; more like
an application than a “page”
“Read” “Write” & Contribute
Mode
“Page” “Post / record”
Primary Unit of
content

8
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

“static” “dynamic”
State
Web browser Browsers, RSS Readers, anything
Viewed
through…
“Client Server” “Web Services”
Architecture
Web Coders Everyone
Content Created
by…
“geeks” “mass amatuerization”
Domain of…

3.0 KEY TECHNOLOGIES OF WEB 2.0:

The creator of Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly summarized Web 2.0, “Web 2.0 is the business
revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an
attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is
this: Build applications that harness network effects to get more people to use them.”

In short, the foundation of Web 2.0 is collaboration. But how do individuals, workgroups,
and communities of similar individuals collaborate on a global scale? At the core of Web 2.0,
three distinct technologies empower individuals to collaborate on a scale never before
achieved: blogs, wikis and RSS (which stands for “Really Simple Syndication”.) While these
three technologies first emerged from the consumer market through social networking sites
such as myspace.com, they are evolving to address the needs of the enterprise, and in the
process of doing so provide early adopters with unparalleled competitive advantage.

The following section details about the technologies and gives their implications in Business
Management.

3.1 Blogs

Many are surprised to learn that General Motors is an ardent proponent of blogging to reach
a broad range of customers. During a recent interview, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz of General
Motors described his company’s adoption of blogs, “No better opportunity exists to engage
in an open dialog and exchange of ideas with customers and potential customers than using
blogging technology.”

9
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

The term web-log, or blog, was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 and refers to a simple
webpage consisting of brief paragraphs of opinion, information, personal diary entries, or
links, called posts, arranged chronologically with the most recent first, in the style of an
online journal. Most blogs also allow visitors to add a comment below a blog entry.

Each post is usually ‘tagged’ with a keyword or two, allowing the subject of the post to be
categorised within the system so that when the post becomes old it can be filed into a
standard, theme-based menu system. Clicking on a post’s description, or tag (which is
displayed below the post), will take you to a list of other posts by the same author on the
blogging software’s system that use the same tag.

The most successful blogs traditionally provide commentary, news and/or insight on a
particular subject. More often than not, blogs combine text, images, video, audio and links to
other blogs, web pages, and other content related to their core topics. Blogger.com is a very
good example of blogs.

3.1.1 Business Insight of Blogs:

Blogs provide an excellent means of promoting products, articulating solutions, and exposing
a brand to search engines such as Google - the primary means by which prospective
customers locate product and service information. Blogs are the best online information
gathering tools. This is because blogs provide the neutral platform for the users or potential
users to ask questions and drop in the answers. This in turn facilitates for an open discussion
about the product and thereby helps the R & D team of a company to know the true tests of
customer, which can rarely be captured through the formal traditional ways.

More often than not, blogs are used to reinforce their brands and compliment traditional
marketing campaigns through media channels such as television and radio. Similarly, while
advertising, promotional and collateral sources provide more direct control, blogs are often
believed to offer more credibility since they channel real world customer observations and
insight.

This open exchange of ideas often translates to a less threatening means of reaching
prospective customers, particularly during the discovery process when many are gathering
information and in the early stages of opening a dialog with a product or service provider.
Using the tagging feature of blogs, the problem of getting quick-hitting content to people that

10
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

need it is enabled. Similarly, the effective use of blogs enables users to develop a dialog (or
read the dialog of others) before committing to a product or service. Additionally, because
blogs are not restricted by classic call centre constraints – for example, call volumes, staff
levels, time zones differences, etc. – customers and prospects can often access critical
information without consuming expensive resources.

A very good example of blogging in Indian Context is the online shopping portals like Ebay,
Rediff, Indiaplaza, etc. These sites provide blogging option for users to comment and rate the
seller and the product. New buyers find this information useful while looking for information
about the quality & specifications of the product, delivery time taken, after sales service and
integrity of a seller. The seller rating feature of Ebay has made it the most favourable and
trustable site for online purchases. In a similar way, Dell Computers also provides blogging
for users to comment on the recent Dell product they purchased.

3.1.2 Blog Mining

Blog Mining is another concept which is taking its hold in the online environment. Blog

mining is similar to data mining- in that, it refers to the thread searching in the blog and

coming out with relevant results. It is quite necessary to mine the blogs for usable and

measurable competitive, distribution, product development, service, and support insights.

Capturing information from the chaos of scattered data is the challenge. That's why blog

mining is starting to get real. Many search methods have been proposed to carry out

successfully mine the blogs. This has in turn provided entrepreneurs another tool to compete

in the online war by coming up with blog mining tools. Example: SAS, SPSS, BTT

(BlogPulse tracking tool).

BuzzMetrics is a company which gives a methodology of mining the blogs mentions of a

company or product and also tracks the impact of the word-of-mouth influence in purchase

decisions. Techdirt Inc. is a company that provides competitive intelligence for its

customers. The concept of Techdirt is to scan blogs, web pages, and any other form of

11
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

publically available electronic information and then deliver to its customers, a personalized

blog of information on market information, competitive analysis and major news from your

industry.

3.2 Wikis

A wiki is a webpage or set of WebPages that can be easily edited by anyone who is allowed
access. Wikipedia’s popular success has meant that the concept of the wiki, as a collaborative
tool that facilitates the production of a group work, is widely understood. Wiki pages have an
edit button displayed on the screen and the user can click on this to access an easy-to-use
online editing tool to change or even delete the contents of the page in question. Simple,
hypertext-style linking between pages is used to create a navigable set of pages.

3.2.1 Business Insights of Wikis

Increasingly, companies that consider themselves “technology early adopters” are applying
wikis to non encyclopaedic content such as product information, company profiles,
documentation, and user guides. Instead of explicit document versioning, wikis simplify the
approach to content collaboration by maintaining a single shelf product that anyone can
review, change, edit or annotate. Wikis encourage participation and contribution, which in
turn generates more valuable and relevant content for all participants.

In the view of business implications, Wiki can be viewed as information dissemination tool.
That is, all the information, say about a product, can be kept at one place can be made
accessible to the users, say by the manufacturer of the product. By this, the users can get all
the information at one stop and that too, reliable or accountable - for the reference of the
information giver can be tracked, if required. Thus the reader remains assured of the
authenticity of the information. Also, if not for commercial use, the Wikis can also be used as
an information disseminating tool within the company. This helps better when a common
message or information is to be propagated to all the employees of the company. In a way, it
can act as an intranet. For example, Infosys Technologies uses ‘Sparsh’ which in fact, is a
Wiki application.

Nokia’s “Insight and Foresight” business unit – a group which, not surprisingly, identifies
disruptive technology and business model developments – embraced wikis “as an alternative

12
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

to email.” Wiki was used as an alternative to email in many other companies too.
Additionally, because coordination was conducted openly – for everyone to observe and
contribute – instead of hidden in email, other team members benefited as well. This helped
departments collaborate and work together by adding views and data in a single page, which
was viewable by everyone, and this reduced the clogging of inboxes and uncooperative ways
of communication. Communicating through wiki enables participation of everyone as anyone
can come in at any point of time and read the happenings.

In the Indian context, Pagalguy.com has used wikis to help students participate in discussion
with peers from their aspired b-schools. Since all conversations in the web pages are
displayed, a person can see all the discussions at any point of time and reply to any statement
made. This has helped many students prepare for b-school exams and interviews.

Wikis also allow creation of online polls and have proven to of a great benefit to marketing
research companies. These companies can now conduct relevant surveys by choosing apt
samples of population at reduced costs or at no cost at all.

3.3 RSS

The third and final component of Web 2.0 technology is RSS, an abbreviation for “Really
Simple Syndication.” The following model shows how the RSS works.

Figure 3.1: How RSS

works
Software programs known as “Feed Readers” or “Aggregators” routinely check a user’s
“subscribed feeds” to see if any of those feeds have new digital content such as news, blogs
or podcasts. If there is new or updated content, the digital content is retrieved and that
13
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

content is presented to the user. Google News Alerts, for example, is a Google branded RSS
feed service.

3.3.1 Business Insights of RSS:

RSS can be used as a marketing tool for business. This is because RSS can keep a track of
the users of an online service, as it keeps a track of any updates in online news website. This
address tracking can be of great help in informing the customers/site viewers when a
company launches a new product or introduces a new scheme. This is particularly true in
banking sector where new offers and deposit schemes are launched very often. The use of
RSS has increased especially after the CBS (Core banking system) adoption on a large scale
in various banks. For example: ICICI bank and ICICI Life insurance company
(icicidirect.com) makes use of RSS extensively.

Pagalguy.com, Marketingnews.com, etc. are again an examples of RSS feeds. A user gets
subscribed to a discussion thread if he/she replies or posts content in that discussion thread.
If any person replies to the user’s message or post a new message in that thread, the user
immediately gets notified by email – the feed readers pickup that message, look for the
user’s mail id in the user’s database, check if the user has enabled RSS settings, then send the
message to the user. This has proven to be of great use to many people in research and
product development, etc.

4.0 KEY ASPECTS OF WEB 2.0

The key aspects of Web are:

• Interpersonal Computing
• Web Services
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
Interpersonal Computing is about using online technology to connect people to each other
in social networks or in business teams. Examples of these are Facebook, Blogger, Orkut,
Flickr and YouTube. This feature of Web 2.0 allows people to exchange messages with each
other and also photos and videos. The end user is the key-person in modifying or adding to
the content to the website.

Web Services are components of online functionality (APIs) that can put together to form a
mashup. As explained above, two applications from different websites can be integrated
14
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

together to form a new application. An example of this is the ability to embed a YouTube
video in your blog or webpage, thus using YouTube’s API to run the video on your
blog/website. Example: Embedding YouTube videos in Orkut website under the header “My
favourite videos” is using YouTube’s API with Orkut’s API.

SaaS is another offering of Web 2.0 that helps a user run an application online, an
application that is not installed in his computer. GoogleDocs is a basic example of SaaS. It
provides with office components like word documents to be used without being installed on
the machine. The development in this field has led us to an era where, now, online operating
systems are available. For example, Knopix is a Saas which has all the kernel files stored on
the CD and we can directly run the Linux CD without installing the OS onto the system.
GlideOS 3.0, YouOS and eDesk are some examples of online desktops which enable a user
access his files from anywhere across the world.

5.0 BUSINESS IMPACTS OF WEB 2.0:

5.1 Reducing the Cost of Customer Care

Most businesses direct their customers to a website as the first resource for issue resolution.
If the inquiry cannot be resolved online, then more often than not, the customer places a
phone call to the company and an agent, in turn, logs a support incident or trouble ticket. If
the inquiry is not resolved with the call center representative, the trouble ticket is forwarded
to a support engineer who in turn may consult with additional resources such as engineering,
quality assurance or product management.

When applied to the world’s largest companies, the size and scope of this process is vast. In
fact, in a typical Global 1000 technology company, approximately 500,000 support-related
inquiries are recorded each year. Almost 60% of these inquiries are relatively insignificant in
nature and will not have a major impact on the customer’s business. Successful companies
that embrace Web 2.0 and mass collaboration are augmenting their support portals with
wikis, blogs and RSS services that allow customers to create fast, fluid and innovative
content. A marketing director at SAP, the global software giant, explains that Web 2.0
technologies “are not a replacement of our corporate portal, but an addition to it.”

By fostering a community of users that rely on a company’s products and services, and
encouraging customers to exchange ideas, recommend best practices and address one

15
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

another’s support issues, forward-leaning companies are finding that they can deliver more
proactive customer care at lower costs. In fact, Stata Labs, the software company that
develops the Bloomba email client and SA Proxy Pro Spam Filter software, relies on wikis
and blogs to promote collaboration across its customers and empower support staff-members
to solve problems faster. In particular, Web 2.0 technologies help integrate a first-line support
team in India with the second-line support team in India. Each support request generated on
the website sends an email to a support wiki; requests are automatically categorized. “First-
tier support reps query the wiki knowledge base for pre-written answer templates, but if they
don’t know the answer, they can use the workspace to compose standard answers.”

5.2 The financial impact

The desire to cut costs and increase revenue is behind this widespread adoption of Web 2.0.
A full 79% of companies surveyed see the collaborative aspects of Web 2.0 as a way to
increase corporate revenue and/or margins. As a cost-reducer, 30% of companies expect Web
2.0 tools to trim the most in customer-service and -support costs. “Instead of a call centre
with 5,000 people, you could have one with 2,000,” says Citigroup’s Mr Koeppel, because
customers can find their own answers to questions online.

However, 21% of companies also expect Web 2.0 tools to lower public relations, advertising
and marketing costs, while 17% expect to reduce the costs of product and service innovation.
Blogging, for example, “is very effective from a marketing and branding standpoint,” says
Anthony Christie, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at Global Crossing
Ltd, a US$2bn telecoms company that provides broadband, voice, data and multimedia
communications solutions in more than 600 cities in 60 countries on six continents. “It’s an
extremely efficient, low-cost approach to building your brand.”

For example, in 2006 the world’s largest car manufacturer, General Motors (GM), followed
its successful launch in 2005 of a blog called FastLane with a second blog called FYI. This
strategy helped GM change consumer perception that GM is impersonal. As well as cost
reduction, though, many businesses also expect Web 2.0 to add to their revenue.
Marketing and sales
54%
Customer service
47%
Information and research
28%
IT

16
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

17%
Strategy
14%
Operations
14%
General management
14%
R&D
13%
Supply-chain management
11%
Finance
10%
Human resources
8%
Procurement
4%
Legal
4%
Risk
3%
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, January 2007

Figure 3.2: Where Web 2.0 will be applied

5.3 Some Examples of Web 2.0 in Business

AdSense

Google's AdSense program lets a website/page owner sell advertising space for other
people's ads on his website--and not just any ads that Google chooses, but ads that are
relevant to his site's content pages. The service is free, and the owner earns money every
time someone clicks on an ad.

AdSense has become popular with bloggers and other people who run non-commercial sites.
You sign up, carve out some space on your pages for the ads, paste a few lines of code from
Google into the HTML for your site, and let Google fill in your pages with color-coordinated
ads. When somebody clicks one of the ads, Google pays you a fee (the amount varies, and
the company doesn't disclose its payments).

Second-life Grid

Second Life is an online social networking site which has recently opened up a new concept
called Second Life Grid. Here the users can buy virtual land called grid and use virtual cash
(which is purchased using Domestic currency) to construct buildings and facilities to
resemble their desired environments. The advantage of this is that users can form online
social networks, Business can conduct meetings in the virtual environment, professors can
conduct class for all students. This helps reduce overhead costs of buildings, facilities, etc
that would be incurred otherwise.
17
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Visionary international corporations – Michelin, IBM, Xerox, Saint-Gobain Glass, Harvard

School of Law, and Stanford Business School -- have established and grown significant
presences on the Second Life Grid. These organizations have built spaces in Second Life
Grid in some of these ways:

• Hold in-person meetings without leaving the office, using real-time 3D collaboration
• Construct product and process simulations so employees and business collaborators
from all over the world can test new designs and concepts
• Conduct employee training especially one-on-one training
• Meet with global partners at your virtual headquarters
• Receive product feedback from clients
• Conduct virtual classrooms and courses.
• Build community around your brand

6.0 WEB 2.0 FACILITATING THE OVERALL BUSINESS EFFICIENCY

6.1 Better customer and supplier relationships

Web 2.0 ushers in a collaborative nature of relationships - Web 2.0 applications have
opened up a lot of communication channels--and opportunity--for business professionals.
Now they can reach out to individuals from across the globe and share content and web
applications. Through blogs, wikis, and social networking sites such as Facebook and
LinkedIn, people are becoming more and more electronically intertwined. "There's a sense of
security in a Web 2.0 world where people trust their personal information to others," says
Jordan Frank, VP of sales and marketing for Traction Software. "Ensuring success in Web
2.0 means that trust doesn't get broken," says Frank.

Most companies don't want to restrict the collaborative flow that Web 2.0 has brought with it;
and they want to continue to build on their Web 2.0 platforms. A Gartner Executives
Programs survey of 1,500 CIOs from across the globe revealed that half of the respondents
expected to invest in Web 2.0 technologies for the first time in 2008. Internet experts agree
that part of that investment must include security measures to protect organizations'
intellectual property.

18
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

6.2 Competitive advantage to firms

Web 2.0 adds competitive advantage to firms - With the spread of corporate sponsored
Web 2.0 applications IT managers have started to install tools that can measure and analyze
activities. Companies could use the data from these sites to significantly improve customer
relations and even measure the hype surrounding their brands.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. first created an online community — Scott CommonSense — for

users and potential users of its Scott personal care products in 2004. The consumer products
company began taking steps to analyze the data compiled by the Web 2.0 application. The
community offers information such as personal finance and healthy living advice and enables
members to interact with one another. The more the member participates in the community,
the more loyal he becomes to the company's products.

6.3 New avenues to serve customer better

Web 2.0 unfolding new opportunities - Several vendors are moving quickly to meet what
they expect will be growing corporate demand for Web 2.0 analytics tools.

For example, Omniture Inc., Utah-based Web analytics vendor and Lithium Technologies
Inc., a social media platform supplier in Emeryville, Calif joined forces to link their products
to provide corporate customers with what the companies described as a holistic view of user
behavior across multiple Web properties, including online communities.

The integrated offering will help businesses capture social data from blogs and forums and
integrate that information with other pertinent company online data.

BuzzAboutWireless, based on Lithium's platform, uses Omniture analytics to better measure

how social media can be used to acquire new customers and otherwise boost business,
Omniture said.

In yet another example, Demand-Base Inc. launched Demand-Base Stream, a free desktop
widget that can be used to identify visitors to a corporate Web site. When a company or
organization visits a corporate site, the Demand-Base tool streams the identity of the visitor
across the bottom of desktops used by Web site operators, noted Demand-Base CEO Chris
Golee.

19
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Responsys Inc. is using Demand-Base Stream to ascertain whether sales calls or e-mails to
potential customers have been successful, said Scott Olrich, chief marketing officer at the
San Bruno, Calif.-based e-mail marketing company.

The sales team at Responsys learns immediately when a recipient of a sales call visits its
Web site. The company uses the LinkedIn process to contact the prospect, Olrich said.

The data mining engine alerts users to the key data on a site. It also identifies unimportant
data that can be ignored.

NuConomy's Studio Weboffering includes a two way API that lets operators change the look
of sites based on current metrics and insights. Web site operators can change advertising on
a page or push specific content to a user based on his interests. by opening APIs in order to
help third-party developers build applications using data compiled by the analytics tools. For
example, some developers have built applications that display Google Analytics data on
Apple's iPhone, while others have developed Flash-based versions of the service.

6.4 Innovations in security

Web 2.0 brings forth better commitment to security - Just as collaboration in a Web 2.0
environment is a continuous process, security measures require the same diligence. The
proactive approach that is necessary to have successful Web 2.0 security measures in place is
catching on.

The solutions must still be easy for companies to integrate into their operations such as the
ones that Central Desktop offers provide companies with a slate of secure tools that have
consumer-friendly functionality. So security becomes an easy process for them to control.

Companies are likely going to have to continue navigating themselves through the security
issue, since they may not get a guiding hand from developers. More enterprises are testing
software before it is even installed as a way to prevent potential security issues from
occurring in the first place.

While Web 2.0 security features can create a more productive work environment, there are
also financial benefits. What companies need to recognize is that implementing security
measures can serve as a competitive advantage - cost advantage of fixing things early in the
cycle. Fortunately, this shift is occurring. Web 2.0 security solution providers say that they
have seen an increased interest in security products from customers. They expect the need for
20
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

such solutions will continue to grow as Web 2.0 applications are further developed and
integrated into the workflow.

7.0 WEB 2.0 AND SECURITY

As has been seen web 2.0 has opened opportunities for business professionals, as they can
reach out to individuals from across the globe and share content and web applications. Users
trust the sharing of information in this medium just because their friends do, or simply
because these sites have not let them down. But with new technologies come new
vulnerabilities and more security concern. The older version used static pages when
compared to dynamic AJAX-enabled websites in case of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 applications are
vulnerable to a variety of threats, from cookie tampering to cross-site scripting (XSS)
attacks. Often, when such attacks occur, the user is unaware that his computer and more
important data has been compromised

Companies are facing security issues on both the client side and the server side. Web 2.0 uses
Web Services in addition to traditional web usage like jsp and asp. SAOP protocol which is
used in web services is conveyed over HTTP. All this imply that traditional protocol level
attacks on HTTP, SMTP, FTP, etc apply even when conveying SOAP/XML messages. The
different security issues are:

(i) Authentication

If a feed requires authentication, then authentication based attacks such as replay,

session/credential hijacking is possible.

(ii) Client Side Attacks: Cross-Site Scripting & Forgery

A feed can contain content from various sources. When such content is presented to the user
in a single web page, applying a single security model for a browser is almost impossible.
This will eventually lead to cross-site scripting and forgery attacks.

7.1 Preventive Measures

Don’t drop your guard: People don't read licensing agreements, they'll add a widget or
they'll click on a link and as a result the "bad guys" have got so better at making harmful
applications look legitimate which finally affects the end user.

21
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Purchasing security tools: IBM acquired Watchfire and HP bought SPI Dynamics. These
companies developed security tools. These security tools scan and test web applications for
security vulnerabilities. It also offers recommendations for how to fix problems that are
identified, which helps organizations close the loop on their security issues. Mi5 Networks
has technologies that will block users from visiting a webpage that is identified as a risk.
They receive a message that informs them that the particular page violates company policy

Securing Enterprise 2.0: Apart from authentication which is the general security check,
other important aspects of security include permission/access control, an audit trial and
monitoring. Softwares such as traction software address all of the above issues.

Commitment required: This is required from the business owner who needs to take a
proactive approach in order to face less vulnerability.

Staying Safe on Social Networking Sites: Social networking sites, sometimes referred to as
"friend-of-a-friend" sites, build upon the concept of traditional social networks where you are
connected to new people through people you already know.

7.2 Security Implications in Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites rely on connections and communication, so they encourage you to
provide a certain amount of personal information. When deciding how much information to
reveal, people may not exercise the same amount of caution as they would when meeting
someone in person because

• the internet provides a sense of anonymity

• the lack of physical interaction provides a false sense of security

• they tailor the information for their friends to read, forgetting that others may see it

• they want to offer insights to impress potential friends or associates

While the majority of people using these sites do not pose a threat, malicious people may be
drawn to them because of the accessibility and amount of personal information available on
them. The more information malicious people have about others, the easier it is for them to
take advantage of others.

7.3 Measures to prevent security/privacy attacks:

22
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

• Limit the amount of personal information you post - Do not post information that
would make you vulnerable (e.g., your address, information about your schedule or
routine). If your connections post information about you, make sure the combined
information is not more than you would be comfortable with strangers knowing.

• Remember that the internet is a public resource - Only post information you are
comfortable with anyone seeing. This includes information in your profile and in
blogs and other forums. Also, once you post information online, you can't retract it.
Even if you remove the information from a site, saved or cached versions may still
exist on other people's machines

• Be wary of strangers - The internet makes it easy for people to misrepresent their
identities and motives Consider limiting the people who are allowed to contact you
on these sites. If you interact with people you do not know, be cautious about the
amount of information you reveal or agreeing to meet them in person.

• Be skeptical - Don't believe everything you read online. People may post false or
misleading information about various topics, including their own identities. This is
not necessarily done with malicious intent; it could be unintentional, a product of
exaggeration, or a joke. Take appropriate precautions, though, and try to verify the
authenticity of any information before taken any action.

• Check privacy policies - Some sites may share information such as email addresses
or user preferences with other companies. This may lead to an increase in spam. Also,
try to locate the policy for handling referrals to make sure that you do not
unintentionally sign your friends up for spam. Some sites will continue to send email
messages to anyone you refer until they join.

8.0 LOOKING AHEAD - THE FUTURE OF WEB 2.0

Within 15 years the Web has grown from a group work tool for scientists at CERN into a
global information space with more than a billion users. Currently, it is both returning to its
roots as a read/write tool and also entering, through the power of the six big ideas, a new,
more social, community and participatory phase. But where will it go next? Although Web
2.0 is barely off the ground, some are already beginning to ask: What will Web 3.0 look like?

23
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

The Web, or more precisely the network, as platform and the idea of software above the level
of a single device is becoming firmly entrenched as a concept and it is likely that over the
next few years we will start to perceive personal computing more as a process of interacting
with networked services rather than using a particular computing device. This trend can only
be exacerbated by the move towards ubiquitous computing.

8.1 The emerging field of Web Science

Web science is an emerging discipline, recently proposed by Tim Berners-Lee and his
colleagues at the University of Southampton and MIT. Its goal is to understand the growth of
the Web, its emerging topology, trends and patterns and to develop new scientific approaches
to studying it. Increasingly, given the importance of the Web as a social tool, there will be
more research into the social and legal relationships behind information.

8.2 The continued development of the Web as platform

Computing software architecture tends to go in phases, paradigms even, and the Web or
network as platform is one such paradigm. In coming years an increasing number of tools
and operating system-like software will emerge to further this process. An example of this is
Parakey, which is currently being developed by the co-founder of the Mozilla Firefox
project, Blake Ross. It will provide a browser-based way to access and manipulate the
contents of your desktop PC and also allow others, with your permission, to do the same. In
effect, it provides software that essentially turns your computer into a local server.

8.3 Trust, privacy, security and social networks

A great deal of discussion is taking place around provenance, reputation, privacy and security
of Web and email data. The sheer scale of material that people are prepared to post, often the
most intimate details and photos that a generation ago would only have been seen and known
by a handful of friends is changing the nature of privacy. There is also a growing awareness
that as the volume of information available from the Web grows the ability to determine what
is accurate and from a trusted source becomes ever more difficult. Increasingly, there is
concern about some of the more dubious aspects of search engine optimisation (in which
search engines are manipulated so that certain websites appear higher in the rankings), web
link spam (groups of pages that are linked together with the sole purpose of obtaining an
undeservedly high score in search engine rankings).

24
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

There are large numbers of spam and email filters on the market and despite best efforts they
are still not regarded as fully adequate. A tool bar inserted into the Web browser provides
information on the trustworthiness of the website being viewed based on knowledge and
ratings obtained both from a social network of friends and colleagues and trusted third
parties (such as Consumer Unions and PayPal).

8.4 Web 2.0 and SOA

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural approach in which highly

independent, loosely-coupled, component-based software services are made interoperable,
and there is now some discussion around a potential synergy between Web technologies and
SOA.

In particular, some argue that bringing together the rich front-end user experience provided
by the latest Web technologies such as RIA with SOA-enabled technologies at the back end
could provide improved reliability, better scalability, and better governance. Both have
openness, data re-use and interoperability at their core. In fact, Web 2.0 data mashups could
be considered similar to the composite applications of SOA (see diagram below). There are,
of course, differences: SOA relies heavily on governance, which Web 2.0 lacks.

Figure 8.1: SOA and

Web Source: http://web2.wsj2.com
9.0 WEB 3.0

At the WWW2006 conference in Edinburgh, when asked by TechWatch about the likely
characteristics of 'Web 3.0', Tim Berners-Lee stated that he believes that the next steps are
25
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

likely to involve the integration of high-powered graphics (Scalable Vector Graphics, or

SVG) and that underlying these graphics will be semantic data, obtained from the RDF Web,
that ‘huge data space’. A focus on visualisation is also evident elsewhere: Ted Nelson, the
inventor of hypertext, is working on FloatingWorld: a system for displaying documents,
including the links between them, in three dimensions. He recently spoke of the idea of
translating this concept to a 3-dimensional social networking system. In addition, IBM
recently announced the winning ideas in an international search for technology developments
that it would fund to the tune of $100Million over the next couple of years. One of the
winners was the ‘3D Internet’ which will take the best of virtual worlds such as Second Life
and gaming environments, and merge them with the Web.

However, it could be argued that this, once again, is focusing on Web technologies and not
looking at the big ideas. For this we should maybe go back to the fundamental idea of the
topology of the Web and take a look at what kind of a legacy Web 2.0 may have left us with.
If some of the more negative effects of Web 2.0 have taken hold to a demonstrably
detrimental effect, it is quite possible to envisage a situation where 'Web 3.0' would become a
backlash to Web 2.0. As part of this process there are several areas where developments in
Semantic Web and those within social software are beginning to be explored in consort:
Everything,the
Changing
Extracting
Contextualizing
meaning
web the
into
from the
a language
way
web
everywhere,
people
basedthat
interact
oncanthebewith the THE SEMANTIC WEB
read
web
people
all the and
time
using
categorized
it
by the system rather ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
than humans

PERSONALIZATION MOBILITY

The Semantic Web is “a web ofFigure

data”. With
8.2:semantic
Web 3.0 web, computers will scan and interpret
information on web pages using software agents. The software agents will be programs that
Framework
crawl through the web, searching for relevant information. Theses agents will have collection
of information called ontologies, which exist in the form of metadata. Metadata is

26
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

information included in the code for web pages that is invisible to humans but readable to
computers.

9.1 Semantic Wikis

This is a developing research area, but in essence, researchers are looking at ways to annotate
wiki content with semantic information. A Semantic wiki allows users to make formal
descriptions of things in a manner similar to Wikipedia, and also annotate these pages with
semantic information using formal languages such as RDF and OWL (Oren et al., 2006). A
number of engines are being developed to support this concept including Platypus and
SemperWiki.

9.2 Semantic Blogging

Blogs can be more than an easy-to-use publishing tool. Their ability to also generate machine
readable RSS and Atom feeds means that they can also be used to distribute machine-
readable summaries of their content and thus facilitate the aggregation of similar information
from a number of sources. Traditionally, these feeds are used for the headlines from blog
postings, but by combining the ideas behind the Semantic Web with blogging software –
Semantic Blogging – it may be possible to develop new information management systems.
For example, RDF semantic data can be used to represent and export blog metadata, which
can then be processed by another machine.

9.3 Semantic Desktop

It is envisaged that combining the ideas of the Semantic Web and Web 2.0 services with
traditional desktop applications and the data they hold (such as word processor files, emails
and photos) on your local computing device will facilitate a more personalised way of
working. In theory, this should create a more focused information and knowledge
management environment, helping to find a way through personal ‘data swamps’. Research
work is at an early stage, but IBM is working on QEDWiki, a wiki-based application
framework for collaboration working which enables the creation of enterprise mash-ups.

9.4 Web 2.0 VS Web 3.0

Web 2.0 Web 3.0

“Read-write web” “Portable personal web”

27
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Focused on communities Focused on individual

Blogs Life stream
Sharing Content – XML,RSS Dynamic content – semantic web
Web Applications Widgets, drag-drop mash ups
Tagging (“folksonomy”) User behavior (“me-onomy”)
Google iGoogle, NetVibes

10.0 REFERENCES

1. TIM O’REILLY. What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the next
generation of software. O'Reilly website, 30th September 2005. O’Reilly Media Inc.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
2. Blog Mining through Opinionated Words by Giuseppe Attardi and Maria Simi,
University of Pisa.

3. TIM O’REILLY. Web 2.0: Compact Definition. O'Reilly Radar (blog), 1st October
2005. O’Reilly Media Inc
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/10/web_20_compact_definition.html
4. TIM O’REILLY. People Inside & Web 2.0: An interview with Tim O’Reilly.
OpenBusiness website, April 25th 2006.
http://www.openbusiness.cc/category/partners-feature/
5. http://search.ebscohost.com
6. Wikipedia
7. www.google.com
8. Business Week – Web 2.0 has Corporate America Spinning
9. Web 2.0 by Ed Yourdon, September 2007
10. www.us-cert.gov
11. www.suitetwo.com
12. www.secondlifegrid.com
13. www.howstuffworks.com

11.0 GLOSSARY:

28
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Personal or corporate online journal that offers reporting and

Blog
opinion about people, things and events.
The use of Web 2.0-type concepts and software (see below)
within an enterprise. Enterprise 2.0 was first used by Andrew
Enterprise 2.0
McAfee of Harvard Business School in the Spring 2006 MIT
Sloan Management Review.
An application that pulls and displays information from

Mash-up multiple sources in response to user queries to deliver a

customised result.
A situation in which a product or service becomes more

Network effect valuable the more people use it.

Really Simple Syndication, an online system that lets average

consumers designate what news or information they want
RSS multiple sources to deliver directly to them.

An online labelling system that lets consumers create a de facto

Tagging
index for the purposes of identifying and sharing content.
“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
Web 2.0 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.”
A collaborative website that average users can update, without
a need for programming skills. Wiki is a Hawaiian word for
Wiki quick.

ANNEXURE – 1
Moving Towards Web 2.0

29
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

Web 1.0 to Web 3.0

30
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

ANNEXURE – 2
WEB 2.0 Landscape

31
 Group 7 – WEB 2.0

ANNEXURE – 3

How to add an RSS feed to your reader

Open Your
Reader

RSS and Podcasts:

Podcasts are same as traditional RSS feeds. However podcasts use RSS to capture digital
content like music and videos from the Syndicating website. For example, the Apple Ipod
has a podcatcher software. When you connect the ipod to a PC with Internet connection, the
feed reader checks your favorite websites for data updation. If it finds any update of data, it
downloads the content and transfers it to your Ipod via the PC. This makes the data portable
and available at any point of time.

ANNEXURE – 4
RSS and WEB 2.0
Right click to
Copy

32
Group 7 – WEB 2.0

33