Governor James - Web 2.0 architectures Title from resource description page (viewed Aug. 11, 2009). - Includes index

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a 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 better the more people use them.

Web 2.0 generally refers to a set of social, architectural, and design patterns resulting in the mass migration of business to the Internet as a platform. These patterns focus on the interaction models between communities, people, computers, and software. Human interactions are an important aspect of software architecture and, even more specifically, of the set of websites and web-based applications built around a core set of design patterns that blend the human experience with technology.

This book captures what Web 2.0 is by analyzing major changes in web resources uncontentiously deemed to be Web 2.0 so that entrepreneurs, architects, and developers worldwide can reapply the knowledge to new business models. The format for that knowledge is expressed within this book as a set of patterns. Every website that implements Web 2.0 yields important clues regarding its core design patterns, models, and solutions that we can repurpose or leverage to solve other problems. This book lays out those patterns in such a way that readers can improve on and implement them over multiple technologies, families, and contexts.

This book often refers to the new Internet, a term used to include Web 2.0 design patterns and associated technical evolutions, such as the rapid adoption of broadband. The new Internet is not being built as a product of speed increases alone, though. Easy-to-use developer technologies coupled with innovative design patterns from smart entrepreneurs are the primary drivers for new, innovative Internet applications. Continued performance improvements in technology, along with designers building visually compelling user experiences connected to sophisticated services, have made new patterns of interaction possible.

One of these, sometimes mistaken for Web 2.0 itself, is a development trend). New sets of vendor tools and technologies, along with better application architectures, are putting RIA development capabilities at the fingertips of hobbyists. However, from an architects perspective, how do you quantify richness? Is there a list of visual elements that are required, perhaps along with some optional elements? For an application to be rich, it must surely incorporate some functionality that defines it as being different from a non-RIA. But like beauty, the richness of an application lies in the eyes of the beholder. As with many other Web 2.0 concepts, the definition can be captured at best as a design pattern, with notes to aid implementers.

Beyond the development tools and techniques they use, much of the success of companies deemed to be Web 2.0 is a by-product of a pattern of viral marketing, a scenario in which a new site is promoted far faster via word of mouth than any advertising executive could feasibly achieve via other channels. This phenomenon makes Web 2.0 a hot topic among venture capitalists. Entrepreneurs are creating Web 2.0 sites and applications that are so compelling that the users themselves do the marketing, enabling the little guys to enter into head-to-head competition on an even footing with large multinational corporations with huge advertising budgets. Enthusiastic users of a Web 2.0 site can bury a large corporations expensive advertising efforts within months. A case in point is MySpace.com, which became the top web destination in early 2007 based largely on viral marketing and content created by its own users. Other companies, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, share this pattern.

On these companies sites, users both provide and consume the bulk of the data. The users are an integral part of the sites overall conceptual architecture. These new Internet sites have changed in terms of how people experience them, too. Analysts predict that the bulk of first-time Internet users in the next decade might use wireless connections as their first means of connecting to the Internet.[] These are only a few examples of what this rich interconnected tool makes possible.

Web 2.0 represents more than just a change in Internet technology. It is a global change in how we engage with one another. Customer brand loyalty is at an all-time low. Competition is a mere click away for most companies. With the realization of social change comes a desire on the part of large enterprises to learn about the mechanisms behind Web 2.0. As enterprises race to gain a competitive edge over their global competitors, theyre realizing that Web 2.0 design patterns can be a critical ingredient in their overall success or failure.

Streaming high-definition television (HDTV)[] it should become clear that the battle for the media is in a state of flux.

Its not just a multimedia issue, though. A key trend in Web 2.0 is the inclusion of the user as a core part of any model. Most Web 2.0 examples have breached the purely technical realm and include users as an integral part of their workflow. Online applications are more than mere software; they represent a process of engagement with users. Users provide key functionality and content in most Web 2.0 applications, helping to build a web of participation and collaboration. These design patterns drive young startups, while incumbent enterprises scramble to adapt to the threat posed to them by people who have built something better to engage the user.