Faculty Resources > Teaching Material/Technology Tools > Research 2.0

Web 2.0 is a concept coined by Tim O'Reilly to mean the many layers and dimenions of interconnectivity now operating on the Internet.  Some might say that if the early days of the Internet (Web 1.0) was about access to static content, the Internet today (or Web 2.0) is more about collaborative content aided by tools that facilitate social networking and many to many content generation.

To help explain the concept, in 2007, Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University made a video titled "Web 2.0, The Machine is Us/ing Us," that he released on YouTube .  The video is provided below.

For more information on how Web 2.0 will impact higher education, see John Thompson (2007) "Is Education 1.0 Ready for Web 2.0 Students?" Innovate 3 (4) http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=393

To learn more about Web 2.0 applications and their use in the classroom, see Wes Fyer's wiki "Engaging Digital Natives with Web 2.0 Tools"

Researching with Web 2.0 Tools

• Effective Search and Research Strategies a wiki by Wes Fryer

  http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com/search

This Wiki presents links to search tools that help one research deeper into the web than simple keyword searches.  The tools includes tools that help you search for text, images and videos and tools that help you validate the credibility  of sites.

• Research 2.0: Using Emerging Online Technologies to Facilitate Research, a wiki by Eric Hoefler

  http://hoefler.wikispaces.com/Research+2.0

This wiki was developed to accompany a workshop by the same name given by Eric Hoefler.  The wiki begins by examining how Web 2.0 is changing how we think about research.  The first part provides links to tools and the second part examines concepts such as the deep web, copyright and plagiarism, and tagging.

Organizations

• Digital Future Coalition

  http://www.dfc.org/

The Digital Futures Coalition strives to find "an appropriate balance in law and public policy between protecting intellectual property and affording public access to it."  Created in 1995, this 42-member group is made up of academic and professional organization  monitors and advocates on intellectual property issues. 

• Creative Commons

  http://creativecommons.org

Founded in 2001 as a response to the tensions caused over copyright with digital developments, this organization developed the Creative Commons License to provide creators a way to protect their work while at the same time encouraging open and creative use of it through a "some rights reserved" licensing.  In addition to the explaining the Creative Commons license and proving a easy system for using it, the site also offers links to Creative Commons-licensed media

Publications

• Lessig, Lawrence. (2004). Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity.

  Available online at http://www.free-culture.cc/index.html

Lessig, Standford law professor and new media intellectual property scholar and visionary, examines how media companies are using technology law to limit "the public domain of ideas." The book is available for free as a downloadable pdf file through a Creative Commons license. There is also a video of Lessig speaking about Free Culture from the 2002 O'Reilly Open Source Conference.  

Wikipedia 

Wikipedia, a marvel in demonstrating the power of social networking in buildling content  is not without its controversy.  Below are links to examples of the challenges presented with audience generated content

Nature versus Britannica over Wikipedia Accuracy

In 2005, an article was published in Nature that claimed that information found on Wikipedia was as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica.  Britannica printed a 20 page rebuttal on its corporate web site.  Nature responded with its own press release rebuttal.

Wikiality

This segment from a July 30, 2006 "Colbert Report" from Comedy Central brings a humorous look at the benefits and liabilites of audience generated content.