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Web 2.0 is the all encompassing term for the type of websites involving user-generated content. I have written this article on my website (which is not Web 2.0), and you can’t comment on it. If it were on a normal blogsite, you could leave a comment (these sites are Web 2.0), the technology facilitates the ability to create web content through the website itself, instead of by writing the code and uploading it (like I do every week).
The reason I am explaining this commonly used but rarely understood piece of technical web-jargon, is that the invention of such a system has massively increased web usage in the last 6 years. The most common integration of Web 2.0 into our lives has been social network websites. And let’s face it, without facebook, the Internet is boring. Sure there’s porn, but you can’t really do that in your lunch hour, or on the home computer in from of your nan (not unless it’s a really enthralling episode of Eastenders (which it never ever is)). Sending an email was the most arduous task your computer would be asked to do in those days. And even after that it needed a sit down and the application of a cold flannel.
But since MySpace and majorly Facebook have come to life… people are now spending hours and hours, all day and night logged in to the sites. The majority of people still only really do as much as they ever did, maybe send an email or two. But they’re online, just in case. See what’s happening. In turn, the insight that people want to spend more and more time online for no real reason was responded by the telecommunications industry. As a logical event in the timeline, they saw a public of consumers who wanted something. They had no reason for wanting it because it would not offer them any advantage, but they wanted it nonetheless. They also saw themselves, with the capabilities (with their satellite based communication technology) to provide that something. All they had to do was invent the reason. Cue Twitter.
I don’t have a Twitter account, or a ‘birdfeed’ or whatever they call it (if it’s not called ‘birdfeed’ they’re missing a trick). I usually tend to only be able to handle one site at any one time. I’m not loyal or anything, I’ll bounce from one heated rival to another like Carlos Tevez’ tennis balls. It just gets too complicated and time consuming. I only joined Facebook after most of my friends did, then instantly deleted the Myspace. But I’ve never really understood the appeal of it. What is the appeal? You find out what your friends are doing? I don’t want to know what my friends are up to… what would we talk about when we saw each other?
“So I went to this thing on Saturday…”
“I know, you fell into a pond, a read your twitter.”
“Oh… but then…”
“…you were bitten by a duck.”
“y…yeah. But it…”
“…could talk. I know all this! Can we not talk about something interesting?”
“Apparently not.”
A lot of people use it to follow (this is the term used, it’s not just a form of legal stalking) celebrities. Scratch that, it is basically a form of legal stalking, but the celebrities seem to welcome it. As long as annoying things like murder don’t get in the way, stalking seems to be the new courting. I’ve never been one to care much about celebrities though. If there’s an interview with someone who makes a TV show or film I like, I’ll read it in interest for their new project. But if there isn’t a new project, it’s just them on the street drinking coffee, or getting drunk in a club, who cares? Well lots of people, but I don’t.
I can imagine the whole Twitter system would be more appealing, or at least more useful, if I had the ability to use it to its potential. I don’t own a new smartphone I can use to get on the Internet. I bought my current model for £10, 2 years ago. The battery is held in place with blu-tack. If I did, I’m told I’d be able to receive all the information I love to get on my Twitter at home, only whilst on the move! All the time! At first I’m sure you can imagine me pontificating about how I wouldn’t want to receive information at any and every opportunity, instead preferring to walk about in ignorant bliss, and sit down under a tree somewhere, waiting to be hit by an apple.
But no. All species have needed quicker and more efficient ways to communicate information to one another since the dawn of time. From smoke signals, carrier pigeons, and telecommunication satellites, to Gazz banging his glass on the floor when he wants another drink. The technology to contact and be contactable from any point on Earth already exists in the mobile phone, but this is too expensive to be worthwhile. With the type of automated information retrieval offered up by Twitter, it spells the dawn of a new age for companies in need of talking to their customers.
Bakertweet is one such invention, created from the genius of mobile technology, made realistic by the efficiency of the Twitter system. Designed for use in bakeries, Bakertweet is a small box, which can be programmed in correlation to your birdfeed. A tweet can be sent to all the bakery’s registered followers whenever fresh baked bread arrives from the oven simply at the press of a button, instead of having to dick about with a floury keyboard, getting sticky dough all over the mouse and burning your muffins at the same time. This technology is basically like sending a text message to an infinite number of people, at none of the cost. None!
The technology doesn’t stop there either. If you add together the ability of a GPS system, with one of those chips that can tell the balance of an object (the ones in Wii remotes), both of which are already present in the iPhone as well as other 3G phones probably, you can physically (this isn’t just a theory, they’ve made it!) point your phone at something (anything) and retrieve information on it. Seen a nice looking restaurant? Point for user reviews. Looking for a flat? Point at a ‘For Rent’ sign for an online style ad including pictures and landlord/agency contact details!
As this technology becomes more embedded into peoples awareness. The limits literally will only stop at the edge of imagination. People say that technology has gone as far as it can go, or that any advancements only serve our species’ new found laziness in not doing anything for ourselves. They said the same thing about mobile phones, that they’d make everyone a slave to their jobs, and they would give everyone cancer. But how many lives have been saved from the ability to instantly call emergency services? Sure there are two sides to every story, but I always stand by the mantra that the more people with the more, up-to-date information, the better. With society so obsessed with improvements in humanitarian and environmental issues and awareness, this can only be a good thing.
Beat the Tweet – Brought to you by James Wormald -