What is WEB 2.0 Anyway?

A new buzzword, Web 2.0, is starting to creep into our consciousness, and I have heard it often enough that I decided I had to investigate its true meaning. Wikipedia, increasingly my favourite look-up resource, defines Web 2.0 as, “a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online” (Interestingly, Wikipedia itself is a perfect example of Web 2.0, as it complies with the collaborative definition. All the content of Wikipedia is submitted by volunteers, and any content can be edited and updated by anybody who can be bothered to do so).

By contrast, Web 1.0, the original World Wide Web that kicked off the Dot Com revolution resulting in a few dazzling tech success stories, and also produced many more tech startups that crashed and burned. Web 1.0 was really the emergence of static web-pages and search engines that were really nothing more than a new advertising medium. Everybody piled on board, and suddenly every business, big or small, had a web-site that ranged from flashy, splashy and exciting to boring, dull and ugly. None of them really offered any kind of user participation, except perhaps a “contact us” email button.

Napster, the first music sharing service, was one of the first collaborative services available on the internet, so it would have qualified as a Web 2.0 application, but the term did not yet exist when Napster was launched. Napster originally employed a technique known as peer-to-peer file sharing, since copied by many others, Kazaa, Limewire, Gnutella and Grokster are other examples. What is technically interesting about peer-to-peer file sharing schemes is that it does not depend on a single server or group of servers; anybody with a file sharing program installed has unwittingly turned his/her machine into a virtual server, though many users don’t realize this. Songs which have been downloaded from somebody else are then “served” or passed on to other music downloaders. This makes for efficient use of internet bandwidth, in that a single song can patched together from many different sources simultaneously, instead of bogging down a single server somewhere trying to cope with hundreds or thousands of download requests. More recently, for really large files such as those used to create entire CD images, BitTorrent is the new champion of peer-to-peer filesharing.

Although eBay has been around longer than the term Web 2.0, it is also a reasonable example of a Web 2.0 application. One of the things that ensures a good experience for purchasers of eBay items is the Feedback Rating system. Purchasers of items are asked to give either positive or negative feedback on their purchasing experience. If buyers post more than 5% negative feedback, the seller will not survive for long on eBay; buyers have shaped a marketplace that has virtually eliminated shifty, lazy or dishonest vendors. The simple idea of having customers participate in the eBay marketplace by posting a comment has fundamentally changed the way we shop, and has turned eBay into one of the most successful internet businesses in the world.

There is not enough space to cover the entire topic of Web 2.0 in just one column; if you want to find out more about it, and the future direction of the internet, search Google or Wikipedia with the search term “Web 2”. Next week we’ll explore the new children of Web 2.0, Blogs and Podcasts.

The Importance of Backups

Perhaps the biggest area of neglect for PC users is the regular data backup. The modern hard-disk is a miracle of reliability; never-the-less all hard-disks eventually fail or wear out, and so the question is not IF one will experience data loss, but WHEN. A typical PC user doesn’t bother with backups until he/she experiences the loss of vital data. It’s like flossing your teeth – it’s a pain in the ass (mouth?) to do, but if you don’t want to lose your teeth it is something you probably should do. It’s called preventative maintenance.

Another problem with backing up is that, until quite recently, it has been difficult to implement. In the old days, it meant purchasing a tape drive, which were notoriously unreliable, and the tape media extremely expensive. With time, wear and dust accumulation, they eventually stopped working without warning their owners. Backup procedures often seemed unnecessarily complicated also; software vendors were terrible at explaining the differences between full, incremental or differential backups. Often in my career I have been called to restore data from a tape drive, only to deliver the unfortunate news that the backup hasn’t worked for past 8 months, or perhaps a year or even longer. Usually accounting data is lost – this is a true catastrophe for any business.

Fortunately backing up has become much easier since the advent of CD-Burner and DVD-Burner as standard equipment. The DVD-Burner is better as it holds much more data than the older CD format. Combined with backup software such as BackupMyPC or Cobian Backup (another example of great free software), this can be quite a good solution.

If you have more data than can reasonably fit on a CD or DVD, another very popular solution is the portable hard-disk. These are very handy and easy to attach, and they will connect to Windows 2000 or Windows XP without special device-drivers. Most of these devices come with bundled backup software, and 80Gbyte units can be purchased for around $100. These make sense for backup as they can be taken offsite after-hours, providing extra protection. This is another thing to consider, data loss is not always caused by hardware failure; taking backup data offsite daily adds that extra protection against fire and theft.

Another very feasible method of backup is to copy data to another PC on your network. Although not likely to protect against fire or theft, it is a great way to start doing backups without having to purchase any new hardware. Chances are there is already heaps of unused hard-disk space existing on one of your networked computers. If you are a home user with a tight budget and no network, another option is to bring that old attic PC back to life, or go and pick up a second computer at the re-use it centre for under $50, create a network, and copy your data to the spare machine every day. Caveat – be sure to start with a “clean” windows install! You don’t even need the clutter of an extra keyboard, mouse and monitor – you can run the box without these extras, or better, you can use a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch, which allows you to share your existing keyboard, monitor and mouse with a second computer. I depend heavily on mine for repairing computers. An excellent model is the Linksys ProConnect KVM, available for about $80

For more information about backing up using a networked computer, see the excellent article, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1938267,00.asp. Start backing up your prized data today – with so many options, you are out of excuses!