Here’s my personal concept of Web 2.0, a Web 2.0 site usually fits into one of the following types:

• Community as the content - social networking: members share information, the community decides the value of that information and the community benefits. A two-way open sharing of information.

  See: The Cluetrain Manifesto, Web 2.0 diagram, Oreilly Web 2.0 Article.
  Examples: Digg (share tech links), 43 Things (share to do lists) and del.icio.us (share bookmarks).

• Rich online applications - easy-to-use applications which take software which may have once been found on single desktops to a shared online space, independent of the computer you are using.

  Examples: Flickr (photos), Writely (Word processor) and Backpack (organiser).

AJAX enables richer online user interfaces.

When we use desktop packages, like Word or Excel, we can drag, drop, click, sort, and so forth - all without having to wait around for your screen to reload. AJAX brings this sort of functionality to the web.

AJAX is a term used to describe a combination of four key elements:

• Javascript - for the programming
• CSS - for the style/layout
• DOM - for the page elements that Javascript will change
• XMLHttpRequest object - for retrieving data from the server behind the scenes without refreshing the page

A few years ago, DHTML was all the rage - it combined the first three of those AJAX elements. It enabled rich user interfaces, but the problem was that you still had to refresh the page each time you changed something significant.

Examples

• Google Maps
• Google Suggest

Footnotes: I have a number of tech skills I want to develop this year - two of them are AJAX and Ruby on Rails.
To help get me going, I’m taking notes and my writing up my thoughts on the topic while reading this book:

Ok, well not quite yet but Zoomin is the next best thing and it’s my new favourite map site for New Zealand. While there’s currently no businesses listed, it’s so handy for quickly finding street addresses. I used to use NZ Maps - but that only covered Auckland.

So much has changed in the five years since NZ Maps was created.

Zoomin offers the following advantages:

• Intelligent search - while I type in a street name, possbile matches appear (each with its suburb) with quick links for me to click.
• Just enough information - rather than listing each street name on a map (like traditional paper-based maps), only main roads are shown until I zoom in closer. The address I’m looking for is conveniently marked - rather than having to try and spot the street, then guess where the number might be on it. This makes map viewing seem so simple. When I’m at the street level, I’m provided with a list of other street numbers below the map which I can quickly click on.
• Quick to respond - as I zoom in or out, scroll up or down the page usually doesn’t need to reload - thanks to some handy AJAX behind the scenes. As a result, I’m waiting around less.
• Informative URLs -
  http://www.zoomin.co.nz/auckland/auckland/princes+street/36/
  URLs follow the pattern: Region - City/Town - Street - Number
• Nice design - I firmly believe simple is beautiful.

Great to see a Kiwi company producing useful web products.

(Geek speak: contains AJAX and is almost valid XHTML)

Just got Blog Marketing in the mail today from Amazon and I’ll be blogging some excerpts, summaries and thoughts on the book as I read through it. Jeremy Wright writes about blogging for business - something I’m passionate about - and introduces the book by asking the question: “will you use blogs to benefit your business, or will you ignore them and perhaps experience a negative consequence that takes you completely by surprise?” Or, as we said in a recent talk on blogging for business: “become part of the conversation”. Jeremy lists the benefits of blogging as follows:

• Blogging is a communication tool
• A marketing technique
• A listening device
• A way to interact with customers one-to-one on a global scale

A while ago, I made a list of some of the applications of business blogging:

• Customer Relations: Building relationships and community with customers
• Customer Service: Dialoging with customers, gaining feedback, providing support, knowledge base archive
• Market Research: Learning from your market - surveying, testing new ideas/products
• Marketing: Increasing consumer awareness of one’s business online. Brand/reputation building, advertising
• PR: Press releases, news, announcements, promotions, crisis management, providing insight into your company
• Networking: Communication and collaboration among distributed colleagues, partners, suppliers, customers and others. Discuss relevant news items
• Internal use: Reduce emails (or large attachments), common source to refer to. Can be password protected. Group projects
• Knowledge-base archive
• Thought leadership: Provide advice, information, insight, resources, tips - demonstrating expertise

Back back to the book, it looks a nice introduction for people who are new to the concept of blogging but are curious about possibly using it as part of their business. More on it as I read through the book.

About a year ago, I was researching online about online communities for ideas into running our community sites IdolBlog and Street Talk when I stumbled across Common Craft - a blog by Lee Lefever themed around social design and found his insights invaluable.

We talked a couple of times and then I noticed he was stopping that blog to go on a year long world trip… which had New Zealand as its first stop. He’s now blogging his adventures at The World is not Flat - and yesterday we got to spend the day with Lee and his wife Sachi and show them a little of Auckland’s scenic spots then have a BBQ together. We had a lot of fun and it was great to talk ideas and technologies in person. He’s already blogged a little about the day, along with photos.

This morning I got my latest parcel of books from Amazon, which included Blog Marketing by Jeremy Wright and to my surprise Lee was one of the first people Jeremy thanked. The world’s not flat, and it’s not that big either.