Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Web 1.0 allowed users to search for information and read it (practicalecommerce.com). There was no interactivity among users and the internet. It was close to a means of advertising in a way since companies wanted to build a presence online, just to get their name out to the public more. Web 2.0 simply refers to the ability to interact with websites. Now many things that seem common are possible because of this change from web 1.0 to web 2.0.
Web 1.0 is different in technology and design than web 2.0. In web 1.0, the websites were static (howstuffworks.com). They had information, but the sites never changed and therefore never gave a reason for a visitor to return to the site once the information was obtained. In web 2.0, the websites are always changing. Information can be altered as often as desired along with design. This creates a reason for visitors of the site to return to the site later on.
Another big difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0 is that the websites were not interactive in web 1.0 (howstuffworks.com). Users could visit a sight but could not interact with it in any way. In web 2.0, that system totally changed and is now the premiere reason why people use the internet. Things that are possible in web 2.0 such as shopping, blogging, posting pictures, and much more, were not possible in web 1.0.
A third huge difference between the two generations of the internet comes when talking about software. Web 1.0 applications were proprietary (howstuffworks.com). After a company developed software for people to download, nobody could see how the application was developed in web 1.0. In web 2.0, “applications are an open source program, which means the source code for the program is freely available” (howstuffworks.com). This provides ways for material to constantly have a chance to upgrade and improve for the better.
The differences in news gathering and distributing are endless between the two generations. In web 2.0, news gathering can be done by anybody with an internet connection. Anybody has the ability to post information on the internet in a matter of minutes and theoretically, anybody around the world has a chance to see that information. In web 1.0, once a website posted information, it was permanent and unchanging. Distribution enjoyed the same advances when the internet lept to web 2.0. Any news can be distributed almost anywhere across the internet.
The future of the internet is unclear. What is clear is that the advances that have been made in the last decade alone are truly remarkable and the advances over the last 30 to 40 years are true history changers. A journalist in the distant future might have a very different job description than today’s current journalists.
It may sound like science-fiction, but journalist could be gathering information instantly through nano-machines implanted in their bodies. They could distribute that information to other nano-machines in other people’s bodies. Technology like this may seem far-fetched, but so did flying, space travel, and well, the internet. Ethics may have completely gone away in the distant future and now no news is too scandalous or provocative. This may also mean that there is no “wrong” way to gather news or distribute it. The internet will surely still be around. Television may still be around but newspapers and radio will probably have long since disappeared.
Crude technology with the ability to see a screen from your fingertips already exists. You can wear little caps on your fingers and pull up a screen onto a wall and interact with it. In the future, this technology will be vastly improved and I believe will take the place of cell-phones. I also believe journalists will use tools such as these for their work. Technological advances such as this are the way of the future and will never stop improving. The world will look very different from today in the distant future and hopefully we can keep up.
