Web 2.0 Basics. Again.

Another Web 2.0 article.

Not that I have anything to do with Carnegie Mellon -- other than that I love watermelon. This just came up in my general "2.0" Google News search feed. Most of what gets picked up is not relevant or even interesting but this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. This article is filled to the brim with the key concepts of Web 2.0. It mentions facebook (et al). It labels social networking tech as groundbreaking. It talks about the evils of social networking tech. And it even garnered the standard "don't worry about it" comment.

I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of the constant "it's awesome but it's evil" coverage of all things web 2.0-ey. Of course it's awesome. It's a technology (and are therefore awed by it's magical-ness) that's popular (which we all strive for). And of course it's evil. Or at least has the potential for evil. It's a technology (and should therefore be feared and questioned) that's popular (so it's a haven for all the worst kind of people).

Talk about something else! How about it's potential to help with education? No wait, that's been done. How about it's potential to bring us all closer together? Oops, done too pretty much. Or maybe that this is just a normal extension of our age-old desire and ability to communicate and socialize? Bah. Too boring.

(Oh, and one more thing... The subtitle is "Learn about the pros and cons of online social networking and how to ensure your profile is clean". The article may include SOME of the pros and cons but not THE. And it certainly doesn't show you in any detail how to ensure that your profile is clean. I would have been disappointed if I had actually read it before getting into the article.)

[ Inspired by "Web 2.0: Social networking in a college setting" by Katie Chironis from The Tartan ]