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Chapter 9: Web 2.0

IT357 Electronic Commerce

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Web 2.0

• What is Web 2.0• Principles behind Web 2.0• Core Competencies of Web 2.0 companies• Web 2.0 Design Pattern• Social Media• Virtual Communities • Online Social Networks• Technology Support• Why is there an interest• Web 2.0 Commerce activities inside the Enterprise• The future of ECSources:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.htmlTurban et al.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/30/web_20_berners_lee/

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Web 2.0

• Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity.

• Web 2.0 is the second generation of Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in perceived new ways – such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies.

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Cont’d: Web 2.0

• Tim Berners-Lee, the individual credited with inventing the web and giving so many of us jobs, has become the most prominent individual so-far to point out that the Web 2.0 emperor is naked. Berners-Lee has dismissed Web 2.0 as useless jargon nobody can explain and a set of technology that tries to achieve exactly the same thing as "Web 1.0“ and whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web

• Berners-Lee pointed out the things that drove Web 1.0 also underpin Web 2.0 - the document object mode, HTML, http, SVG, web standards and - because he's old school "Java script of course."

• Free Software Foundation chief legal counsel Eben Moglen recently concurred at this month's LinuxWorld, saying Web 2.0 owes its existence to software and development methodologies already established in open source.

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Cont’d: Web 2.0 Memory Map

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Cont’d: Web 2.0

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Principles Behind Web 2.0

1. The Web As Platform

2. Harnessing Collective Intelligence

3. Data is the Next “Intel Inside”

4. End of the Software Release Cycle

5. Lightweight Programming Models

6. Software Above the Level of a Single Device

7. Rich User Experiences

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Cont’d: Principles Behind Web 2.0The Web As Platform

• The Web As Platform– Netscape framed this in terms of old software paradigm

• “webtop”, to replace the desktop, populated with information updates and applets pushed to the web top

• Used dominance in browser market to market high priced server products

– Google began as native web application, not sold or packaged but delivered as a service• A specialized database

• Without the data, tools are useless

• Without the software, tools are unmanageable

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• Successful giants born in Web 2.0 era embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence– Hyperlinking: users add new content and new sites that are bound

in to the structure of the web– eBay’s product is the collective activity of all its users– Amazon uses user activity to produce better search results.

Amazon leads with “most popular”, a real-time computation – Wikipedia, an online encylopedia where users can add entry and

edit others’ entries– Flickr: pioneered concept of folksonomies wherein you can use

your own keyword to tag your photos– Blogging: personal home page in diary format– RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows someone to not just to link

to a page but to subscribe to it, with notification everytime that page changes

Cont’d: Principles Behind Web 2.0Harnessing Collective Intelligence

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• Every significant internet app is backed by a specialized database– Google’s web crawl, Yahoo’s directory, MapQuest’s map

databases, Napter’s distributed song database

• Who owns the data: people may re-post their reviews in another site– Mashups link Google Maps with other internet-accessible

data sources (see housingmaps.com)– Personal videos submitted to Youtube

Cont’d: Principles Behind Web 2.0Data is the Next “Intel Inside”

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• Operations must become a core competency– Expertise in product development must be matched by an

expertise in daily operations

• Users must be treated as co-developers– Open source dictum: Release Early. Release Often. now

morphed into “Perpetual Beta”

Cont’d: Principles Behind Web 2.0End of the Software Release Cycle

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Cont’d: Principles Behind Web 2.0Lightweight Programming Models

• Quest for simplicity: Google Maps set the world on fire due to its simplicity

• Significant lessons:– Support lightweight programming models that allow for

loosely coupled systems– Think syndication, not coordination: Web services like RSS

are about syndicating data outwards not controlling when it gets to the other end of connection

– Design for “hackability” and remixability : the barriers to re-use are extremely low. “Some rights reserved” as opposed to “All rights reserved”

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• No longer limited to PC platform• “Useful software written above the level of single

device will command high margins for a long time to come” – Dave Stutz, Microsoft Developer

• iTunes: application seamlessly reaches from the handheld device to a massive web back-end

Cont’d: Principles Behind Web 2.0Software Above the Level of a Single Device

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Cont’d: Principles Behind Web 2.0Rich User Experiences

• Javascript and then DHTML were introduced to lightweight ways to provide client side programmability and richer user experience

• Collection of technologies used by Google was named AJAX:– Standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS– Dynamic display and interaction using Document Object

Model– Data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT– Asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest– And JavaScript binding everything together

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Core Competencies of Web 2.0 companies

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability

• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them

• Trusting users as co-developers • Harnessing collective intelligence • Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service• Software above the level of a single device • Lightweight user interfaces, development models,

AND business models

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Web 2.0 Design Pattern• IN HIS BOOK, A PATTERN LANGUAGE, CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER PRESCRIBES A

FORMAT FOR THE CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF THE SOLUTION TO ARCHITECTURAL PROBLEMS. HE WRITES: "EACH PATTERN DESCRIBES A PROBLEM THAT OCCURS OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN OUR ENVIRONMENT, AND THEN DESCRIBES THE CORE OF THE SOLUTION TO THAT PROBLEM, IN SUCH A WAY THAT YOU CAN USE THIS SOLUTION A MILLION TIMES OVER, WITHOUT EVER DOING IT THE SAME WAY TWICE."

• The Long TailSmall sites make up the bulk of the internet's content; narrow niches make up the bulk of internet's possible applications. Therefore: Leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head.

• Data is the Next Intel InsideApplications are increasingly data-driven. Therefore: For competitive advantage, seek to own a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data.

• Users Add ValueThe key to competitive advantage in internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to that which you provide. Therefore: Don't restrict your "architecture of participation" to software development. Involve your users both implicitly and explicitly in adding value to your application.

• Network Effects by DefaultOnly a small percentage of users will go to the trouble of adding value to your application. Therefore: Set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data as a side-effect of their use of the application.

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Cont’d: Web 2.0 Design Pattern• Some Rights Reserved.

Intellectual property protection limits re-use and prevents experimentation. Therefore: When benefits come from collective adoption, not private restriction, make sure that barriers to adoption are low. Follow existing standards, and use licenses with as few restrictions as possible. Design for "hackability" and "remixability."

• The Perpetual BetaWhen devices and programs are connected to the internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services. Therefore: Don't package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add them on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience. Engage your users as real-time testers, and instrument the service so that you know how people use the new features.

• Cooperate, Don't ControlWeb 2.0 applications are built of a network of cooperating data services. Therefore: Offer web services interfaces and content syndication, and re-use the data services of others. Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely-coupled systems.

• Software Above the Level of a Single DeviceThe PC is no longer the only access device for internet applications, and applications that are limited to a single device are less valuable than those that are connected. Therefore: Design your application from the get-go to integrate services across handheld devices, PCs, and internet servers.

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Social Media

• People create and control the content• Ground rules:

– Communication in the form of conversation, not monologue• 2 way discussions, debate, with little or no moderation

– Participants in social media are people not organizations– Honesty and transparency are core values– It is all about pull, not push– Distribution instead of centralization

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Virtual Communities

• Virtual community is a group of people with some interest in common who interact with one another through the internet

• Advertisers buy ad space target to community members• Eight Critical Factors for a Community Success

[by Accenture]1. Increase traffic and participation in the community2. Focus on the needs of the members, use facilitators and coordinators3. Encourage free sharing of opinion and information – no controls4. Obtain financial sponsorship. This factor is a must. Significant investment is required.5. Consider the cultural environment6. Provide several tools and activities for member use; communities are not just

discussion groups7. Involve community members in activities and recruiting8. Guide discussions, provoke controversy, and raise sticky issues. This keeps interest

high.

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Cont’d: Virtual Communities

• Top six success factors[Based on survey by Leimester and Krcmar in 2004]

1. Handle member data sensitively

2. Maintain stability of the web site with respect to consistency of content, services, and types of information offered

3. Provide fast reaction time of the web site

4. Offer up-to-date content

5. Offer continuous community control with regard to member satisfaction

6. Establish codes of behavior (netiquette or guidelines) to contain conflict potential

• Communities using one or more of the principles of success– Earthweb.com

– Ivillage.com

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Online Social Networks

• A social structure made of nodes that are generally individuals or organizations

• A place where people create their own space, home page, on which they write blogs, post pictures, video or music, and link to other web locations they find interesting

• Some popular sites– Flickr– Facebook– Classmates online– Friendster– Orkut– Xanga– Digg– Cyworld

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Technology SupportSocial Software Tools: Some examples

• Online Communication– Instant Messaging– VoIP and Skype– Blogs blogger.com , digg.com– Wikis editme.com , socialtext.com , goowiki.com

• Types of services– Social network services– Social network search engines

• Emerging technologies– Peer to peer social networks

• Tools for individuals– Personalization netvibes.com– Customization– Search– RSS newsgator.com , knownow.com

• Web development tools– Mashups see programmableweb.com– Web Services

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Web 2.0: Why is there an interest

• Many cater to a specific segment of the population (e.g. music lovers, car fans)

• A large portion of the visitors are young who will grow up and will have more money to spend therefore, Web 2.0 will play a major role in Ecommerce

• Benefits for Retailers:– Consumers can be a source of feedback on product design and

features– Word of mouth (viral marketing) is free advertising and increases

visibility of niche retailers and products– Increased web site traffic– Increased sales comes from harnessing techniques based on

personal preferences such as collaborative filtering

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Web 2.0 Commerce activities inside the Enterprise

• Allow employees to collaborate and communicate in an employee-driven system

• Promote the use of enterprise wikis via demonstrations

• Setup internal blogs and incorporate them into internal directories so users can see who has a blog

• Set up enterprise socila bookmarking systems so users can see what sort of content their colleagues are tagging

• CIOs should be involved from the beginning to make sure the right infrastructure and tools are in place

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The future of EC

• EC will continue to expand as its infrastructure is becoming better and less expensive with time

• Consumers will become more experienced and will try different products and services and tell friends about them

• Security, privacy protection and trust will be much higher, and more support services will simplify the transaction process

• Legal issues will be formally legislated and clarified• More products and services will be online at reduced prices• Fastest growing area is B2B EC• Company-centric systems (e-procurement) and auctions will continue to

spread rapidly• Development of exchanges and other many to many e-marketplaces

will be much slower• Wireless technologies (especially WiFi) will facilitate EC.• Increased rate of innovation with new business models and applications

appearing constantly