The Web 2.0 World
Affiliate Aggregation Asynchronous Communication Archive Avatar Blog Blogosphere Blogroll Collaborative Software Communities of Practice Web Content Crowdsourcing Dashboard Entry Forums Friends Instant Messaging Lurkers Mash-ups Message Boards Metadata Microblogging MMORPG Newsreader Open-Source Software Photo Sharing Podcast Post Profile RSS Feed Social Bookmarking Social Indexing Social Media Social Networking Tag Cloud Tag Thumb Tribe User-Generated Content Virtual Community Virtual World Vlog Voice over Internet Protocol Web 2.0 Wiki
Affiliate Partnership sites that link to one another. Affiliate sites generally share similar interests, products, or services.
Aggregation The process of collecting content from blogs and Web sites via an RSS feed. The results may be displayed by a Web site or may be downloaded directly to your computer using software designed for that purpose.
Asynchronous communication Communications that occur independently of time and place. Internet applications that allow for asynchronous communication include e-mail lists, message boards, and forums.
Archive An index page that organizes previous posts or entries by category or date.
Avatar A graphical representation of a person in a virtual world such as Second Life. An avatar may be an accurate representation of an actual individual, or it may be a fanciful and mythical alter ego.
Blog An individual or group online Web log maintained with regular entries on the subject of the contributors’ choosing. Posts are usually displayed with the most current appearing first, and readers are allowed to comment on individual posts.
Blog hub An aggregated directory of blogs making it easy to search and find blogs related to a specific topic, or blogs from the same company.
Blogosphere A term used to describe the entire interconnected world of blogs and bloggers.
Blogroll A list of sites displayed in the sidebar of a blog. Blogrolls can be used to display affiliate sites, and thus often have a similar interest, product, or service.
Collaborative software Software that allows individuals in diverse physical locations to work together over the Internet on the same documents or projects in real time.
Communities of practice Forums in which professionals gather to share best practices or work together to solve problems. The new capabilities provided by social networking tools are perfectly suited to support the creation and maintenance of communities of practice, both within organizations and across industries.
Community moderator Someone who keeps the momentum going in an online group or forum. Community moderators often introduce subjects for discussion and then work to keep people on topic in their follow-up comments.
Content contributors Individuals who add comments and a point of view to an online discussion or blog.
Corporate social network A Web site behind a company’s firewall that allows users to construct a profile they use to interact with others using social media tools such as messaging, journaling, photo sharing, tagging, and searching.
Crowdsourcing Harnessing of the skills of individuals through an open call for participation. These individuals, due to their enthusiasm, contribute content, do research, and solve problems together.
Dashboard An administrative area of a Web site that allows an individual to post items, monitor usage, upload files, manage comments, and more.
Entry An individual post on a blog. Each entry is actually a Web page of its own.
Forums Also known as message boards; Web sites where visitors are able to have discussions asynchronously by posting messages.
Friends On social networking sites, contacts whose profiles are linked. To “friend” an individual is to request to link his or her profile with yours.
Global citizenship Involves understanding how to conduct business in a foreign country, developing an increased cultural intelligence and a deeper appreciation of the relationship between business and society, and being able to understand complex policy environments and how to work in virtual teams with people from all over the world.
Instant messaging Chatting synchronously with another person or other people via text messages. Popular programs include AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MSN Messenger, and Skype Chat.
Lurkers Individuals who follow discussions occurring in chat rooms, message boards, or blogs but who do not post comments or otherwise interact themselves.
Mash-up A Web application combining data or tools from more than one source into a single interface.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) A genre of role-playing game in which a large number of players interact in a virtual world. World of Warcraft is the largest and probably best-known example of an MMORPG, with more than 11 million subscribers.
Media sharing sites Web sites designed to facilitate the sharing of various text-, image-, and film-based media. Some well-known examples include YouTube and Hulu.
Message boards Also known as forums; Web sites where visitors can leave messages, start topics, and have general discussions asynchronously.
Metadata Description of a data file. Often this can include information about a file’s size, type, creation date, and other data.
Microblogging A sibling of blogging that consists of sending short messages (140 characters or less) to a group of followers. The best-known example is Twitter.
Newsreader A Web site or desktop tool that collects news from Web sites, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs using RSS feeds so the content can be accessed all at once.
Open-source software Computer software whose source code is available to be modified and to be redistributed, if desired, in modified form. Open-source software is often developed collaboratively.
Photo sharing Uploading images to a Web site that organizes and displays them for you. On photo-sharing Web sites, one can add tags and offer other individuals the opportunity to view and comment on photos.
Podcast A series of audio files distributed on the Web via syndicated download. New podcast content is downloaded automatically once it is available and then can be transferred to a mobile device such as an iPod. The most common audio file format is MP3.
Post An entry on a blog, forum, or other Web 2.0 site.
Profile The information an individual provides about him-or herself on a social networking site. A profile generally includes a picture and some basic personal information.
RSS feed A Web publisher feature that allows readers to subscribe to view posts from a frequently updated Web site without visiting the site itself. RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” RSS feeds collect the posts and push them to the reader through an e-mail update or an RSS reader, or to a custom portal.
Semantic Web Also known as Web 3.0; the evolution of intelligent computer agents that can learn and adapt content specific to the user.
Social bookmarking Sharing one’s favorite or bookmarked Web sites on a public Web-based service. These sites often leverage a social network to allow one to find and to share these lists. A popular social bookmarking site is Delicious.
Social indexing The process of individuals’ tagging, or adding keywords, to media they encounter on the Web, whether text-, photo-, video-, or audio-based.
Social learning Learning that is collaborative, immediate, relevant, and presented in the context of an individual’s unique work environment.
Social media Social media is a range of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds by means of which people create and disseminate content. Using social media is often called the democratization of knowledge, since it can transform people from passive consumers of content into active contributors when they write posts, comment on others’ posts, share content, and query others to create new knowledge.
Social networking The act of participating on a Web site that allows users to construct a profile to interact with others. Social networking sites allow people to connect with one another using social media tools such as blogging, messaging, journaling, photo sharing, tagging, and searching.
Social recruiting A practice that leverages social and professional networks, both online and offline, from both a candidate’s perspective and the hiring side, to connect to, communicate with, engage, inform, and attract future talent.
Social Web The cluster of Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, wikis, and social networks, that drive community building and collaboration.
Synchronous communications Communications that occur simultaneously and in real time. Internet applications that allow for synchronous communication include instant messaging and audio or video chats.
Tag cloud A visual representation of the popularity of a category. The more often a tag is used, the larger the typeface with which it is displayed.
Tag A keyword or term assigned to a piece of content by the author or reader/contributor. Tags describe the item informally and without the use of rigid categories, enabling an item to have many descriptions and thus making easier to search and find. Collaborative tagging is sometimes referred to as a folksonomy, as opposed to a rigid taxonomy.
Thumb tribe A translation of the Japanese word oyayubizoku; refers to people who communicate using social media tools on their mobile device.
User-generated content Text, photo, video, and audio content published by individuals on the Web.
Virtual community A group of individuals who gather in social spaces on the Web to share ideas about a common interest via e-mail, blogs, message boards, and/or chat rooms.
Virtual world An online simulated world in which an individual can create a visual representation of him-or herself, called an avatar, and can interact with others in real time.
Vlog A blog that consists of video posts rather than text posts.
Voice over Internet protocol A telecommunications system that enables individuals to make free computer-to-computer calls, including conference calls.
Web 2.0 A term used to describe Web technology combined with social interaction, such as blogs, wikis, and social networking sites. These Web sites are dynamic and interactive, as opposed to static Web 1.0 sites.
Web content Text, pictures, sound, and video posted on the Web; any of the components of materials that can be found on the Internet.
Wiki A page or collection of pages designed to allow anyone with access to contribute or modify content. Wikis are edited collaboratively. The term is derived from the Hawaiian word meaning “quick.”