Web2.0: Social Networks & User Generated content

This weeks lectures and readings went over social networks, wikis and knowledge systems like wikipedia etc and web2.0. I already had a understanding of social networks and examples of them online through virtual communities but when it came to wikis and the term web2.0 I wasnt as knowledgeable. In the set readings Holmes description of the internet is important because he tells how the internet has change the way people communicate. We are not affected by boundaries, distance or time. He also says how computer mediated communication isnt just technology but actually a environment. I think this is true because nowadays it is possible for communication to take place regardless of the time, location or boundaries. This makes me think of my father who is currently back home in Chile with mi familia. He likes to keep tabs on me and make sure im alright as many parents do, I hear nothing changes as you get older aswell. But back to the point I recieve emails from my old man once every day or two. This put holmes's argument into perspective for me. If it wasnt for the internet I wouldn't be able to communicate with my father as often. I may get the odd phone call but would have to rush it and it wouldn't be as often due to the interntional phone rates being very expensive, not to mention the time factor that its usually extremely late in the morning when he calls from south america. This is what web2.0 meant to me. As now we can communicate with each other as opposed to 1.0 which was only one-way communication.

When it comes to wikis, i'd honestly never heard of them before. Obviously id heard of wikipedia.org but i though that it was just a name like things like google or yahoo. I never gave much thought to what wiki actually meant or whether it had a meaning. Turns out its like a collective knowledge where the virtual community takes the place of the author and anyone can write about a specific topic. The lecture brought up the intresting idea that perhaps wikis are challenging authors as authorities. Time will tell...