Web 2.0
Does NetReach do Web 2.0?
Short answer: Yes, we "do Web 2.0."
Long answer: Frankly, some at NetReach tend to ridicule this circa 2004 term as jargon. However, as the term is now widely adopted and clients have even asked for "Web 2.0 technologies," we thought it best to interpret the term. Most users of the Internet today are actively participating in "Web 2.0" — anyone who rates a product on Amazon.com, posts on their blog or Facebook page is participating.
Five years is a long time in Internet evolution, but the basic concept of Web 2.0 (and it really is a conceptual framework, not a set of technologies) has come to mean user empowerment through web-based technology platforms that allow anyone to become their own publishing/participation and collaboration center. Early on, this social phenomena was facilitated through the use of blogs, with their ability to post information and allow others to participate through commenting on the information.
Look the term up on Wikipedia and you'll read what Tim O'Reilly said in 2004 at the Web 2.0 Conference about "user-generated" content: (O'Reilly Media provides information to technologists through books, online services, magazines, and conferences).
Web 2.0 concepts include:
The Web as a Platform
This key principle states that the Web now functions as an operating system. What this means is that users do not need to rely on applications installed on thier local desktop or distributed through a client-server. The application lives on the Internet, in the "cloud" and is delivered as a "service" to users. Desktop software-like functionalities are currently being delivered via the web as web-based applications.
Rich User Experience & User Participation
Rich User Experience. "Rich Internet Applications" is a term coined by Macromedia, the developers of the application Flash (Macromedia Corporation was purchased by Adobe systems in 2005). If you have ever worked with a Flash application embedded in a web-page, you understand that the user experience was superior to that which the web offered at the time, as it could mimic the feel and responsiveness of a desktop application. Now, the use of Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and jQuery allows us to develop Rich-Client Applications (RCAs) that are more intuitive, interactive, and productive than older, traditional web applications.
User Participation. Most people understand that "brochure-ware" websites are a thing of the past. Companies are trying to engage users in their products and services by having them participate in the development cycle through various participatory activities and feedback. Web-based strategies and technology-based initiatives that support these efforts are sought after. These concepts have been variously called "crowdsourcing" and "the architecture of participation." Whatever you call them, they are really an old idea (think about the dynamics in a small village where everyone knows everyone and everyone's business) made new through technology and scale.
Mashup, Composite, Hybrid
These are all different ways of saying the same thing. Basically the "fungible" nature of structured data allows it to be seamlessly integrated from one application to another. Third-party data can be integrated into an application we are building to allow for additional ways for users to interact with that data. This can range from the fairly straight forward display of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) feed, to an Application Programming Interface (API) integration, to a custom web service script that pulls or pushes data back and forth.
Examples include our integration of Verisign (PayFlow), Paypal, and Authorize.net payment gateways into our e-Commerce engine through their respective APIs. An example of a custom script would include real-time data transfer between a website and a client's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database.
