Webmaster of the Web 2.0

The key of the door that opens on the fortune, thanks to websites, is in innovative technologies and the sum of the new technologies used to build a website is designated by the term: Web 2.0.

This page or parts of it (when mouse changes) may be expanded or summarized at your request.

Summary

What is the Web 2.0

Definition

The term has been coined and defined by O'Reilly for designating the use of technologies that improve the design of Web site, allows for collaborative work, create a social networking. New tools allow to concentrate on the content that is managed automatically. Web application and Web service become a bigger part of the industry.

Examples

New kinds of activities and enterprises are appearing: Skype, EBay, Orkut, Second Life, and so ones...

Technologies used by the Web 2.0

These technologies are often combinations of older technologies for new uses, that change completely the appearance and functions of websites, just as chemical is made of combinations of molecules into new materials.

Ajax

Ajax is comprised of JavaScript, CSS, DOM and the XMLHttpRequest object for an asynchronous interaction. Perhaps the main component of the Web 2.0 as it allows to build Web application having the behavior of desktop ones.

PHP and server-side languages

Server-side languages allows to turn web pages into online applications and to use web services.
PHP is the most frequently used and the simplest for small applications. Java and .NET are alternatives.

Mashup

A mashup is a combination of APIs provided by a site or different sites to build new services.
The most usual example is the combination of Google Maps API and the catalog of real state agency to allow customers to visit virtually an apartment and the surroundings. This is used also for restaurants, shops, gas stations and other services. Programming a mashup requires only JavaScript. Alternatively you can use Mapbuilder, define some locations and generate the code. See at resource for a list of mashups.

Collaborative technologies

Various standards have been defined to exchange data and to create social networks.

RSS

Syndication allows to promote the content of a website thanks to an XML file that describe the content, and that may be inserted into a Web page or used from a browser.
RSS is used asol for building social networks.
The OPML format has been created to exchange outlines across the web and is used for lists of RSS files.
For building the feed of your website, you can use a model, as the rss.xml one stored at root off this site and change the data. Or you can use a generator. See at the RSS article.

Semantic Web

The goal of this W3C project is the creation of documents extended with information about the meaning of the document. The document is enhanced with meta-data and relational information. This adds meaning to documents beyond the content and this is an additional information that can be processed by the computer and facilitate exchanging data.
This is a combination of formats as XML of RDF.
An application of the Semantic Web is the FOAF standard.

FOAF

Friend Of A Friend. This is a network of persons virtualized on the Web by documents the computer can process.

Websites 2.0

CMS

Professional websites are all using content management systems for now. Articles may be entered online, with a simple e-mail sometimes and the system creates the page and allows to retrieve it. Additionally, the CMS allows visitors to comments to articles.

Blog

What is very innovative with blogs is that not only each person can now be a writer or a journalist, but each person is also sure to have readers. The success of the writing depends upon the quality of the pages, and the utility of the infos provided.
Anonymous persons can become famous with a blog thanks to blogolls.

Wikis

A wiki is a web site that is contributed and filled by visitors. It can be turned into complete encyclopedia dedicated to a subject or universal.
A wiki requires only a primary content management system.

Collaborative magazines

On these websites, articles are written by visitors, or summaries are sent by webmasters for articles on they own website, or sometimes they sent just an RSS feed. These contributions are moderated by the magazine and often visitors are allowed to click to vote for the article and promote it on the site.
Some examples of such sites are Slashdot and Diggs.

Social networking and sharing

Social networking has been largely developed in the article Blog and Blogosphere.
This is a development of blogs and a complement to exchanging of videos or audio material. The site blogsmark.com for example allows users to designate websites they like and promote them.

Conclusion

A modern website is no longer a sum of web pages but a combination of technologies instead. A webmaster must be a technician for an innovative site, and even if there are websites as xul.fr that furnish you tools and scripts, you need also for some new technology that will make your site unique... But how to provide this unique service to reach the top without any expense? If you have carefully read the article, you have the solution!

Resources

W3C, the standard

How does the W3C, which defines the standards of the Web, support Web 2.0?
By defining protocols and formats for the semantic Web, HTML and forms, XML and storage of data, to facilitate data exchange with the server:

XFN

Programming and mashups

Examples of Web 2.0 sites

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