Web 2.0

Web 1.0 was primarily about connecting people together around the world. Web 2.0 is based more upon the sharing of information and data through networking. Sites that have come up through web 2.0 such as Wikipedia, Youtube, Myspace and Facebook are so popular, not just because they connect people together, but they can share a large amount of data that anyone with internet access can altar to a certain extent.

Wikipedia, is a free on-line encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. It is user-generated and relies on trust that the information being shares by others is in fact true and not misleading. As the existence of web 2.0 is information sharing, Wikipedia is semi-protected and protected, depending on the importance of the subject. The Wikipedia page of Elizabeth II would have a protected profile due to her high status and the information that is edited would only be able to be done by someone that has a good history of publishing correct information on the site. Semi-protected pages such as a profile based on a sport can be edited by anyone but once the information has been seen to be not true or misleading, it will automatically be deleted and restored to the way it was previously.

This would question how reliable Wikipedia is because anyone is capable of editing, deleting, adding or replacing the entry but no previous history for a certain amount of time. It could then question how much of the data is actually used and which is overlooked as a person looking for information could believe anything that is put in front of them.

Mash ups are also information sharing and are used to combine two or more mediums together. It has been done for films or television programmes but are most popular for its use of music. By combining two or more completely different songs together to create a new one is called a mash up. It has come under a lot of criticism as the original songs used to combine are property of record labels and without the permission to use them come under a breech in copyright. Although a new song has been created, it still used the notes of the original songs and that is enough for a record label or music artist to sue the creator of the mash up. They are usually non-profit but increase the reputation of the creator of the mash up songs.
Another example of a mash up would be 'UK snow map' which is a combination of both 'Google Maps' and 'Twitter'. It works by tweeting your location through the Twitter site and Google will find your location through its the maps. This does not come under copyright infringement as both companies have agreed to do so in order to create something new.

The web has now become something that relies heavily on user generated products, although it will cause problems along the way such as if it is illegal or not. Web 2.0 has become a lot more open as we are able to do more with it such as edit information by the audience and not just by the creator of the site. 

What is Web 2.0
Mash up website
Example of a mash up
UK snow map