Task 1b: Professional Communication Technologies

Reader 1 certainly gave me food for thought!

Perhaps it is the subject matter that particularly struck me and immediately had me thinking. Technology – and how is has drastically changed the ways we work, learn and engage and communicate with others, especially ‘Web 2.0’ (a concept previously unknown to me) and social networking, blogs, Facebook etc.

At my age, it is hard to think back to how people learnt and communicated without the use of the internet. Using the internet has almost become second nature, a way of life. It is interesting when talking to my Grandma and being reminded of how modern day technologies have shaped communication. The world we live in is in too much of a hurry to sit and wait for a reply to be delivered in the post, or to travel to a library to source information. But both professional and personal relationships today are arguably improved by the resources we now have. However before Reader 1, I hadn’t been aware of how the web has evolved in the ways it supports our learning and the ability to share expertise and knowledge with a wider group of people. But why have we chosen to adapt the ways in which we communicate and share/collaborate information in the way that we have?

Bear with me whilst I attempt to deduce what is meant by ‘Web 2.0.’ This term refers to a second generation (hence the 2, clever eh?!) of communities that are web based. I am familiar with a number of them, having a Facebook/Twitter account as well as having started this blog as part of my degree! They have evolved from sources of one-way communication, similar to that of a television report or newspaper article, where something is ‘created’ by one person or source, and then ‘read’ by many. Web 2.0 allows any of us to become the ‘news reporter’ or the ‘editor’ of what we feel to be important to us. Users now seem to have far more control in the ability to create and delete items and sites are improved with more users. An example of the difference between these first and second generations of web-based communities that I can think of is as follows. I remember being set homework in my earlier school years that required me to research some information. I specifically remember our family owning a selection of Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD ROM format. I had to insert a disc into my computer and read information that someone had created. Websites such as Wikipedia, although controversial as a source of information as it has been hailed as ‘a radical experiment in trust’ by O’Reilly, allow users to post information and for that information to be edited by others in the future. An analogy that O’Reilly makes that really appealed to me was the comparison of synapses in the brain to the web of connections being created online; the growth a result of the collective activity of the web users.

I think, in essence, the element of Web 2.0 that really appeals to users is the power it could provide, the power in becoming a creator. No one can tell you that writing a blog about the latest fashion trends isn’t important, or that updating a Facebook status with the arrival of a new-born isn’t important. Because it will be, to someone. This is evident in sites such as Facebook, where users can ‘like’ posts and users can not only read blogs, but they can also subscribe to receive updates from them. Web 2.0, as well as this course are similar in principles in that they encourage participation. The blogging community that has been created by Middlesex Uni provides us with the ability to interact with each other, to take part in the creating of articles. Participation is made easier in that access to the internet is more often than not, quick and easy. Users feel they are more able to get involved, or perhaps they are more inclined to with the freedom they are given e.g. having the choice in the appearance of their own online space, whose pages to follow and what to download and share with followers regarding their own postings.