Over a great pizza at Ken’s Artisan Pizza in SE Portland this week, I was talking about how many people are getting excited about the web 2.0 buzz, but are having difficulty really grokking the concept. Todd suggested that I put together a web 2.0 starter kit to help people learn more about web 2.0. I encourage comments on this post to point out the inevitable misses, and I hope to update this post with more ideas as the web 2.0 concept evolves. I encourage you to forward this to people with questions about web 2.0.
The Web 2.0 Starter Kit
Step 1: Read Tim O’Reilly’s essay, What is Web 2.0, and the Wikipedia entry on Web 2.0.
Step 2: Read web 2.0 blogs.
I recommend these:
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TechCrunch: profiles the newest products (a who’s who of web 2.0)
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Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog: ideas and philosophy of web 2.0
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O’Reilly Radar: an eclectic mix of new ways to think about technology
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Mashable!: social networking and Web 2.0 startup companies
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Scobleizer: blogging culture and other new technologies
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TechMeme: not really a blog, but it provides a summary of the current happenings in the blogosphere
Extra credit:
Use RSS and subscribe to the above blogs plus five others. If you need more help getting started with RSS, Netvibes has a fairly intuitive interface, and you can even click here to get a copy of my Web 2.0 / technology rss feed tab.
Search for blogs on another topic of personal interest using any of the common blog search engines: Technorati or Google Blog Search, for example.
Step 3: Stop reading and starting participating.
This is the most important step. You will not truly understand web 2.0 unless you participate in it.
Homework:
If do not already have a blog create one! Blogger is an easy place to start. Pick a topic that you are passionate about (technology, photography, wine, beer, cats, dogs, sports, your kids, or anything else) and commit to posting something every other day.
Use these sites every day for one week.
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Create del.icio.us bookmarks
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Share some of your photographs on Flickr
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Join any social networking site. I suggest MySpace for those under 30 or LinkedIn for the over 30 crowd. Add 5 MySpace friends or LinkedIn connections.
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Participate in Digg by submitting a story and digging a few stories that you find interesting. Extra credit: Add Kevin Rose as your friend.
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Visit YouTube and watch three of the “most viewed” videos of the day. Forward one to a friend (congratulations you are now viral).
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Add yourself to my Web 2.0 Starter Kit Frappr map with a “shout out” message.
Step 4: Repeat Step 1.
After participating in various web 2.0 activities, you will gain new insights from re-reading the O’Reilly essay and the Wikipedia entry.
Step 5: Continue Learning
Watch the Web 2.0: The 24 Minute Documentary.
Web 2.0 is not something that you can learn once and then stop. Because web 2.0 is still developing and maturing, new ideas and new websites pop up every day. Keep reading the blogs in Step 2 and continue to play with new web 2.0 technologies as they appear.