In this post, the sentence “Web 2.0 is hard to define but for me it is about collaboration and organising information more easily.” prompted me to think about how I defined web 2.0. It’s a much discussed concept that may never get a definition that everybody can agree on.

My (current) idea of web 2.0 is that there is move towards open sharing of data in such a way that it can be used in ways other than simply as a web page. Through the use of RSS and semantic XHTML, published information can be shaped and reused outside of the traditional browser environment.

Thanks to the maturation of technologies such as CSS and XML and a seemingly more vigourous campaign for accessibility and usability on the web, we are finally starting to use what has been a target for so long – The concept of Author-once, present-many times. With good CSS2 support (apart from in IE, and yes I know this site still looks crappy in IE) we can author a page and then apply a stylesheet that will tailor the formatting for browser, print, screenreader, mobile device etc. This seperation of content and presentation requires the content to make sense. We should all start actually thinking about what we publish rather than how it will look. The more we distribute our data via feeds such as RSS, the more we get to a situation where the presentation is something that everybody does for themselves rather being controlled by the publisher.

Web APIs allow functionality to be harnessed in ways that the service creators will not always have anticipated. This results in them gaining recognition in very niche markets that would be commercially unviable for them to support with traditional developments.

That’s why MY definition of Web 2.0 is more of a ‘Web as platform’ stance.