March 2007

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What exactly is Web 2.0?

5 March 2007 in Law 2.0, Technology, Web 2.0

The expression “Web 2.0″ is much in vogue and I am as guilty as anyone in bandying the 2.0 tag about. But what’s it all about?

One of the more helpful explanations of Web 2.0 I have come across is on the Web2.0 for Lawyers public wiki which showcases the potential and promise of emerging Web 2.0 ideas for lawyers.

Web 2.0 represents a new generation of social, collaborative, participative services emerging on the Internet … a new methodology for information sharing and knowledge creation.

Stop there if you’ve no interest in things technical.

The page goes on to explain that the technological drivers of Web 2.0 are (definitions added):

  • RSS (Remote Site Syndication, a family of web data feed formats used to syndicate frequently updated digital content, such as blog posts and news stories) and
  • web service programming via Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a web development technique for creating interactive web applications) and
  • APIs (application programming interfaces, source code interfaces that computer systems or program libraries provide to support requests for services made of them by other computer programs)

Are you still with me?

Key elements of Web 2.0 are:

  • The Web and its connected devices as a global platform for reusable services and data
  • Data consumption and remixing from many sources, particularly user generated data
  • Continuous and seamless updates of software and data, often very rapidly
  • Rich and interactive user interfaces
  • Architecture based upon participation that encourages user contribution

The site also includes a useful list of Web 2.0 resources for lawyers.

Pop 2.0 – it was 40 years ago today

1 March 2007 in Miscellany | 4 comments

mojo_160_-_march_2006_-_sgt_pepper_small1.jpgHeading uptown this morning I picked up a copy of March’s Mojo at the newsagent, tempted by the enticing cover CD – a reworking of Sgt Pepper by a dozen groups most of whom I confess not to have heard of. The mag itself features a lengthy article describing the impact of this seminal album. Few would argue that it marked a watershed and remains one of rock’s defining statements. Yet its appeal has not endured, now consistently outperformed in the all time favourite charts by many albums that it inspired and also by the Beatle’s own Revolver (a taste of things to come) and Abbey Road (in many respects a reprise).

Try to find something about the article on the Mojo site if you will. This quote from David Crosby (from elsewhere on the web) is illustrative of Sgt Pepper’s impact:

I was, as near as I know, the first human being besides them and George Martin and the engineers to hear A Day In the Life. They sat me down; they had huge speakers like coffins with wheels on that they rolled up on either side of the stool. By the time it got the end of that piano chord, man my brains were on the floor.

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