Your privately public self.

(or, pay attention to the attention economy)

Web 1.0 - the bubble bursts > the dot bomb of 2001

Web 2.0 - brief history

Web 1.0		Web 2.0
DoubleClick	-->	Google AdSense
Ofoto	-->	Flickr
Britannica Online	-->	Wikipedia
personal websites	-->	blogging
domain name speculation	-->	search engine optimization
page views	-->	cost per click
screen scraping	-->	web services
publishing	-->	participation
content management systems	-->	wikis
directories (taxonomy)	-->	tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness	-->	syndication

Metadata - data about data

10021 is meaningless data (without additional context)

The zipcode 10021 is a postal address somewhere in Manhattan. "zipcode" is metadata that adds meaning to these numbers.

Images produced by digital cameras have metadata embedded in them (type of camera, date, exposure, etc.)

Taxonomy

yahoo.com initially provided a portal > a catalog of links or Controlled vocabulary

predefined, authorized terms
terms chosen by "professionals"
a kind of metadata that functions as a subset of natural language (its not how we normally speak)
good at reconciling synonyms, homonymns, misspellings, abbreviations etc
typically hierarchical (taxonomical)

Some criticisms (Metacrap) - lying, laziness, stupidity, bias

get out of date quickly in fast developing fields of knowledge
presumes a "correct" way of cataloguing knowledge : "The conceit that competing interests can come to easy accord on a common vocabulary totally ignores the power of organizing principles in a marketplace."

cars:

gas mileage > safety > cost

color > horsepower > cost

Folksonomy

google.com developed PageRank and sites like del.icio.us and Flickr emerge

an ad-hoc labeling or "tagging" system
del.icio.us combined identity (or trust) with a tagging system
folksonomies are created as we tag information that we consume
people use their own vocabulary to do this, rather than a prescribed one - this is important in regards to the history of knowledge production. Traditionally, certain knowledge creators decided the names of categories.
multiple tag searches allow for much subtlety without restrictions of hierarch "macintosh help pdf" vs "macintosh cooking recipes"

criticisms:

synonyms - how do we deal with the tages "apple" and "mac" and "delicious"
no hierarchy (is also a feature)

strategies: use power tags "skateboarding tricks movie" and meta-noise "gnarly"

broad folksonomy - del.icio.us > many people tagging the same object > long tail power curve

narrow folksonomy - flickr > useful in finding things that are not easily searchable (images, videos)

Tagging exercise:
In groups of xx spend 20 minutes walking around Marymount Manhattan College. Identify 10 entities (people, places, things) that epitomize the college. "Tag" each entity with a list of terms (at least 3) that your group associates with each item. Try to choose the tags very quickly, informally and intuitively - use free association. Return to the classroom and add your findings to the class website.

Software is a Service

Traditional Software Release Cycle:

pre-alpha > alpha > beta > release candidate > gold

Web 2.0 Release Cycle:

on 'good days', Flickr releases a new version every half an hour…

Users are developers:

http://code.google.com/
http://developer.yahoo.com/
http://del.icio.us/help/api/
http://www.amazon.com/

Inovation in Assembly

Like Dell's innovation was in the assembly of generic hardware elements to build computers, successful Web 2.0 companies leverage and integrate services provided by others.

some examples of businesses:

http://flickr.com/services/
http://www.ning.com
http://dabble.com
http://www.flickrleech.net
http://www.bananr.com
http://grant.robinson.name/projects/travelr/
http://idgettr.com/

The Long Tail

data ~ meta data ~ attention

TOOLS

Managing your subscriptions:

http://www.bloglines.com
http://www.google.com/reader

Privacy:

http://www.mit.edu/~prz/EN/background/
http://attentiontrust.org/
http://www.langenhoven.com/code/emailencrypt/gmailencrypt.php