| Web 2.0 and Mobile Glossary
Demystifying Web 2.0
If you're not sure what "Web 2.0" is, don't fret. It's less of a technological revolution and more of a re-labeling.
According to the Wikipedia, Web 2.0 is "...a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services which that aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users."
To help you stay informed as Web 2.0 evolves, we've created this Web 2.0 glossary.
Mobile Phone Glossary Added
In the next 2-3 years, you will see a profusion of smart phone applications, which have become more powerful and popular, we've added new glossary for mobile phone terms. > Jump to mobile phone glossary terms
| Avatar |
n. An avatar is a digital representation of an individual in a virtual reality environment. A often cited example is Second Life, an application that allows users can mingle with people from around the world while cloaked behind a persona of their choosing. Second Life users can also write their own computer programs to further customize their avatars. |
| Blog |
n. Short for "web log," a blog is a website written by an individual. Blog entries are typically displayed in reverse chronological order with the most recent information on the first page. Blog popularity exploded when free software allowed people with no web skills to create sophisticated websites which included text, video, audio, and other media. As of April 2007, there were about 112 million blogs. Blog software typically provides a method to add comments to the author, subscribe to content updates, and bookmark specific blog entries. |
| Blogosphere |
n. The collective name for the millions of blogs on the Web, sometimes used by traditional media to gauge public reaction to an event. |
| Chat |
n. Software which that allows pairs or groups of people to discuss topics by typing; similar to a phone conversation. This is similar to using an instant message (IM) application, although chat sessions are usually conducted one-to-many (one person writes, many people read) |
| Collective intelligence |
n. Collective intelligence describes how the grouping of opinions, observations, or impressions – if collected in a way that does not introduce bias -- leads to better information. For example, if 100 individuals are asked to estimate how many jelly beans are in a jar, the average of their guesses is likely to be highly accurate – and much more accurate than the group’s estimate would have been. Similarly, if a group of 10,000 movie-goers reviews a particular film, the group’s consensus on that movie is more likely to be reflective of its audience appeal than the comments of any one reviewer.
Collective intelligence is a fundamental strength of a site like Wikipedia: Millions of users who are continuously reviewing a large number of entries can be even more accurate than the small group of experts that edits traditional encyclopedias. |
| Directory |
n. A directory is basically a list. This isn't necessarily a Web 2.0 term, but it's frequently used to differentiate between human ranking of content relevance versus ranking done via a computer program. The benefit to this is that classification can be more accurate, but at the cost of scalability. It's much easier for a computer program to evaluate a billion Web pages every week. |
| Discussion Group |
n. One of the oldest methods of sharing ideas, this software allows people to post questions and accept responses from anyone with access to that discussion group. A questions and the answers to that question are referred to as a "discussion thread" or simply a "thread." Discussion groups are also called "bulletin boards." |
| Influence Map |
n. An influence map is a visual representation of the people who influence as well as make decisions in regards to a project. An influence map shows how stakeholders relate to each other, as well as the amount of influence they have. |
| Mash Up |
n. A digital file or application whose content comes primarily from other sources. This isn't necessarily a Web 2.0 term, but it's often used within blogs, bulletin boards, and other types of websites or applications that consolidate related information from various sources. |
| Messaging |
n. Also called "instant messaging" or "IM". Popularized by AOL. Allows people to communicate by typing in real -time, or by leaving a message for the recipient to respond to when they become available. Sophisticated messaging applications also allow users to share photos, videos, sounds, and other media beyond text. |
| Permalink |
n. Short for "Permanent Link." A method to link to a particular blog posting which that may later change locations. |
| RSS |
n. Short for "Really Simple Syndication." RSS allows publishers (e.g., blog authors) to distribute updated content to all of their subscribers by modifying one file. RSS readers and many Web browsers can be used to view update notifications. There are several RSS formats in use today. "Atom" is a similar content syndication format. |
| Search Engine |
n. This isn't a Web 2.0 term, but it's worth understanding the difference between this and a directory or collaborative tagging. A search engine is software that visits one or more Web pages, looks at the content, and ranks their relevance based on an algorithm. |
| Social Networking |
n. A method of connecting people with similar interests. Prime examples of this are LinkedIn and Plaxo in business environments, and Friendster, Facebook, and mySpace in more social situations. The power of social networking comes from the ability to search for and connect to people based on some aspect of how they describe themselves, and then gaining access to that person's friends and their interests. |
| Tagging |
v. A method to identify, rank, and share information. This then allows others to locate information based on how an individual or group has tagged and ranked information. If you remember the original version of Yahoo!, where a human being ranked the relevance of information, it's very similar. Tagging is also known as folksonomies, collaborative tagging, social classification, social bookmarking, social indexing, and social tagging. |
| Tweeting |
v. Using Twitter or a similar application to send a short (140 character or less) text message about your or your company's status. Others can "subscribe" to your Twitter feed (similar to subscribing to an RSS feed), so they're automatically notified when you post a new Tweet. |
| User-Generated Content |
n. The concept of enabling a community of users—not some individual author—to create the content on a site; contribute to what’s already there; govern it by determining its accuracy, usefulness, and relevance; and ensure that the resource is updated as needed.
User-generated content is typified by information resources such as Wikipedia or YouTube.com. On these web sites, user-generated content is everything: take away the users, and there is no content. |
| Wiki |
n. Software that allows users to write, edit, link, and update website pages themselves. They idea is that since there are multiple contributors, the information will be more objective and accurate. The idea is similar to a discussion group, except that there is only one communally agreed upon answer to the original question. The most famous of example of a wiki is the Wikipedia. |
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Mobile Glossary (Smart Phones)
| 3G |
n. A communications protocol that allows for faster data transmission over a cellular phone network connection. Transfer speeds are typically 400-700 kilobits/second. |
| 5-key |
adj. Used to describe a the arrangement of four keys surrounding a larger fifth key which can be used to navigate through phone application menus. A version of the 5-key system is used on the Apple iPod. |
| DTMF |
n. Dual Tone Multi Frequency. This is the 12-key phone keypad found on all touch-tone phones. |
| Edge |
n. The predecessor to 3G. Sometimes called 2.5G. Download speeds are typically 70-135 kilobits/second. |
| MID |
n. Mobile Internet Device. A new class of mobile devices that falls between a mobile phone and a laptop computer. |
| MIME |
n. Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. An internet standard that allows (among other things) non-text attachments. This isn't strictly a mobile term, but it comes up often. The MIME-type often determines which application your phone or computer will use to open a particular type of file (video, photo, sound, etc.). |
| Mobile Linux |
n. A version of the open source operating system designed specifically for mobile phones. Examples include Google Android, Azingo Mobile, and Nokia Maemo. As mobile phones become more like battery-operated portable computers, a modern operating system (OS) such as mobile Linux or Apple's Unix-based OS X is more flexible and often more powerful. |
| Operator |
n. A telecommunications company. In the US, Verizon and AT&T Mobility are large operators. |
| QR Code |
n. A graphic image that can be used by mobile phones with cameras to import text, web URLs, and other information without typing. QR codes are not widely used in the US, but are common in Japan. |
| SMS |
n. Short Message Service. Text-only messages that can be sent from a phone. Most modern phones include this service. |
| Touch-Based |
adj. Describes a phone where a touchscreen is used instead of a keypad to enter information or interact with an application. "Full touch" means that there are no physical buttons required to operate the device. |
| Web Services |
n. A capability of an application to provide a particular service to other applications. This is also commonly used for web- and browser-based applications for machine-to-machine communications.
For example, an application on a smartphone can use a web service to find and display a map of your neighborhood. The bulk of the computing is not done on your phone; it's done on a powerful server elsewhere and the results are transmitted over the cellular network to your phone.
An old-fashioned analogy would be calling a friend with a calculator to multiply and add a dozen 10-digit numbers, then having them read the sum back to you. |
| Widget |
n. An application that can be added to a platform, typically to perform a single function; also applies to computers and other mobile devices. This term may also used by developers to describe the elements used to build the user interface (a button, a list, a dropdown menu, etc.). |
| WiFi |
n. A high-speed wireless connetion that does not require a cellular network connection. "WiFi" is the trademarked name of a type of wireless local area network commonly used for computers to connect to a network. The benefit to using a WiFi connection (vs. 3G) is battery life; even though it requires more power to operate, it's much faster so you're connected for less time. Connection speed for WiFi is typically greater than 1,000 kilobits/second. |
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Learning 2.0: Using Web 2.0 to Create Effective Informal Learning
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