This is not a term I am particularly fond of simply for the fact that no two people seem to define it in the same way. Also, call me a curmudgeon, but I just don’t like buzz words. Since I categorically refuse to use a term I can’t clearly define, I set out to learn how other people define Web 2.0. I read a bunch of blog posts and articles, but came out even more confused. Is Web 2.0 the Semantic Web? Is it social software? Is it the same as Web Services, the freeing of content from applications so that content can be combined and reused in myriad ways? Is it any web application that is dynamic, scalable, interoperable, etc? Or is it simply going beyond the static HTML page? I understand the individual examples, like Flickr (Web 2.0) vs. Ofoto (Web 1.0) and taxonomy (Web 2.0) vs. folksonomy (Web 1.0), but examples do not make a definition.

Here are some of the things I read in the attempt to define Web 2.0. Maybe you can make better sense of it all:

I agree that something interesting is happening on the Web. I love the idea of the Semantic Web, I get excited about the power of Web Services, and I spend my nights dreaming about the applications of social software in libraries. But Web 2.0?

Maybe I can get a little more excited when I finally understand what it is.