Web 2.0 is the term coined by Tim O’Reilly in 2004. It is used to refer to the rise of interactivity on the internet. Generally, Web 2.0 is considered to just be any collaboration between people over the web, where web sites are created with the help and information of several contributing sources. A prime example of Web 2.0 is Wikipedia.com, an online encyclopedia that can be updated and changed by any member with an account (http://www.wikipedia.org/). The tagline of the website is “Wikipedia.org, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” Wikipedia is therefore not considered to be a valid source in an educational environment because it is difficult to tell how accurate the updates might be. However, Wikipedia creators still reserve the right to deny any information or new pages. Though many intellectuals frown on the usage of Wikipedia, it is almost a preferable method of research because you get information from people who are very knowledgeable in each specific area. The site has grown tremendously over the past few years, both in database and in users.
Social media follows the same general guidelines as Web 2.0 in that it encourages dialoguing between many people. It also shows a trend in the rise of user-generated content; this means that internet users have become producers as well as audiences and consumers. Social media has become an excellent way for businesses to connect to their customers. It has greatly increased the amount of advertisements that reach target audience. Blogs and other such media are especially helpful in this area. The blogs tend to be focused on a particular subject, and therefore businesses can tell if the followers would have an interest in their product. Blogs are considered social media because they allow postings and responses, creating a sense of dialoguing between several people.
The newest and most popular form of social media is social networking. Social networking is a way to focus on people and their relationships through technology. It also creates the most interaction between people on a larger scale, both in terms of numbers of interaction and distance between people interacting. Through websites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace (these are the versions in the United States), users more or less post their entire lives online. People can be followed through links, pictures, videos, posts on other sites, etc. These networks are a means to provide connections. Social networking has increased incredibly rapidly in popularity over the past few years and millions of users are now involved in some way.
Social networking has had a huge impact on the new generation. Teens and young adults now literally live their lives online. This can be a dangerous habit; as more and more adults have joined the social networking craze, teens’ embarrassing, illegal, and unprofessional sides are exposed to teachers, coaches, family members, and even potential employers. Though still a social media, social networking has added another beneficial aspect by increasing the actual networking side. Not only can businesses check out new employees or recent interviewees, they can also scout people interested in their line of work, keep tabs on other companies, keep people updated on their own company status, and perform other such useful tasks.
This concept of Web 2.0 has really changed the world as we know it. Everything seems to be easily accessible, any information you could possibly need to know is somewhere online, either in an article, a blog, or a reference source of some kind. The most important part of its influence is the vast number of people covered in some way by this term Web 2.0. Millions of people from hundreds of countries are on social networking sites, writing online journals, posting YouTube videos, and basically just following this recent trend of moving everything online. Geographical barriers have been completely eradicated; the problems with international communications that were faced in the past have long since been solved. Because of these huge physical leaps, the business world has also been opened to an almost global accessibility; companies are no longer restricted in the ways that they used to be.
These professional barriers have been broken down in several ways. First of all, businesses can search for potential employees through social networking as mentioned before. Also, companies are not limited to looking for employees who live nearby. Thanks to this rise in technology, business meetings can be held over the phone or via conference chat, and therefore all employees don’t necessarily need to travel in to the office every day. Even things like interviews can be held online. Some companies hold interviews using Skype, yet another aspect of Web 2.0. Skyping (a form of video chatting over the internet) allows for visual contact, and many companies set up the calls as if the interviewee was sitting in a boardroom meeting.
Specific companies have allowed this change in international accessibility to completely alter their basic professional set up. IBM in particular has changed tremendously over the past few years. According to an interview seen in Digital Nation, the office buildings at IBM have become like “ghost towns”. Few employees need to drive in to work because they can work from the comfort of their own homes with the same efficiency and amount of progress. It’s a wonder that these workers can accomplish all they need to, but they have come up with a strategic plan of keeping in contact with each other. These employees have moved the business aspect of their lives onto Second Life, a 3D cyber world where “avatars” acting as people can socialize and interact as humans might. It is literally a second, alternate life. Employees design their avatars and even take a class to learn how to properly use all the technology. Their professional lives continue through Second Life as they would in the physical world. The avatars even come together for board room meetings; many times the humans controlling the avatars have never met the person they are interacting with in a face to face setting.
Honestly, this smooth transition from the business environment to which we are accustomed to this new virtual world is worrisome to me. As technology grows more and more complex, our entire world shifts to adapt to it. During this shift, sometimes things we had previously grown accustomed to are lost forever. So the real question seems to be is this change from a personal and business-like world to one of professional isolation beneficial or no?
The main benefit for the companies who are following this shift online is the money that is saved. Individual employees save money and time that would have been spent on travel. Companies also save massive amounts of money by using these free internet sources as a way of interaction between employees and with clients. That seems to be the whole purpose behind conducting interviews on Skype; businesses no longer need to fly the interviewees to their company location.
However, it seems to me that the cons of this professional change far outweigh the pros. Companies making the change may be saving money, but they’re losing face-to-face, personal relationships with customers and between coworkers. There is a certain sense of camaraderie that develops in an office setting between coworkers that cannot be formed when employees work from home. Second Life allows for far less “water cooler gossip”. Also, interactions with potential clients come across as impersonal when conducted over the internet. It seems that it would be beneficial to the company to arrange face to face meetings to really emphasis the importance of the client to them.
The world is changing quickly and everyone is simply struggling to keep up and adapt to the times. It has become a dog-eat-dog world and companies are trying desperately to hang on. However, this internet revolution has started to change everything we have come to associate with businesses and the change seems to be taking away from our business world. This newly formed lack of a business environment seems to almost take away the sense of professionalism needed to maintain the balance of a company.
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