Web 2.0: (Social Issues Firsthand)

When Web 2.0 was defined, it spoke to a new use of the web for more than just static pages that shared information. It was now a place where users could interact, and generate and share their own content. Somewhere in this development also came the birth of "fake news" where users created or obtained fast facts, and then retweeted, reshared, or "liked" it on a massive level, though what was 'published' wasn't actually true, but a deliberate spread of misinformation. Ripe with all kinds of dangers, our web world now insists that the average user is savvy to its pitfalls. This necessary volume helps teen separate fact from fiction, and understand what is so appealing and addictive about interactive programs like Facebook and Twitter. They'll be introduced to predecessors like MySpace, and learn through personal first-hand accounts why self-control, analysis, and caution is necessary when sharing your private life with the world.

Review :
Review: Web 2.0 "This book defines web 2.0 as a delivery mechanism, a paradigmatic shift from the read-only web to one offering interactivity and the ability to add and upload content. In readable essays, both positive and negative aspects of Web 2.0 are probed, touching on everything from privacy concerns to time management difficulties. The writers are, for the most part, not Technorati, but individuals grappling with technology at a consumer level. Essays present the perspectives of clergy, Harvard faculty, columnists, and familiar commentators, including NPR's Peter Sagal. Web 2.0 does a convincing job modeling how functional services gain participants and functionality, but will lose cachet with the inclusion and incursion of later adapters. The book pointedly describes the particular attractions of a range of evolving web-based services including Facebook and Twitter, and spends time explaining the function of blogging and social bookmarking online in a manner comprehensible for the novice. Some pieces serve to legitimize online communities as support networks and as a way of maintaining a shared culture in an increasingly homogeneous world, especially important for individuals isolated by age, culture, or gender. On the whole, as the range of essays here appears to suggest, it is up to the individual to negotiate a personal balance between exploration and exposure to real online stranger danger. Read/write web technologies provide a window into an individual's life. Students may often struggle with ways to describe the effects that connectivity is having on their lives, and this book provides an excellent scaffold and shared vocabulary for serious discussion of what are and will remain concerns central to how we live online. Strongly recommended for both school and public libraries."--Reference Unbound, February 2010