Short 2.0 Glossary

Short 2.0 Glossary

Web 2.0 –A new current of thought that proposes the active use of the Net on the part of users , making them no longer mere consumers of information and/or entertainment, as active subjects in a virtual community in which content is published and shared. The suffix 2.0indicates that we are dealing with an evolution in respect to the characteristics of the World Wide Web (in informatics, the first version of software is called 1.0, and the following 2.0, 3.0...).

Aggregate–A program with content from different sites.

Comment- An intervention by a user, a marginal comment on a published text or blog, or on the message board of a Social Network, or on any site that allows for interaction on content.

Community –A virtual place where groups of persons with shared interest meet (for example, the Social Networks.).

Feed – A service offered by anyone who produces web content to render updating the site immediatelyavailable. A feed is a flow of information; those who “subscribe” (free subscriptions by copying the address of the feed within an aggregate) are automatically informed of what is being published without having to link to the site of origin.

Blog – A public online diary from a blogger who communicates news, takes other content from the web, reflects on and compares with the reflections of others. It is a place of profound sharing. The structure of the blog is apparently sequential, like that of a true and proper diary, with the texts (posts) listed in time order. The presence of links allows for the text to become hypertext, i.e., different paths of reading are created.

Mashup – English word from “to mash”, mashups has content obtained by re-combining existing texts, music and video in a type of re-mix.

Social Network – Sites (social networks ) that allow for contact on the part of individuals who share experience, bonds or particular interests. Facebook and MySpace are two of the most noted examples, but there are thousands of “social” communities on the Internet.

Social Bookmaking – A service to keep one’s preferred web connections (bookmarks)on the Internet (the most famous is Delicious), cataloguing with keywords (tags). Different frombookmarks saved in the computer (Preferences) in that these sites offer the advantage of consulting the list of other users who have shared links.

Tag – A digital “ticket” composed of one or more words that users assign to Net documents (texts, photos, film clips...) to identify the category or topic. Clicking on a tag one automatically obtains all the content distinguished by that ticket.

Backtrack – Going back electronically to a notices that appear on an external site.

Wiki – A collection of pages accessible on the Net. This material may be modified and amplified by every user , through any browser. The name wiki,wiki comes from the Hawaiian languageand it means “fast” because one of the main characteristics of the wiki site is that of speed in the creation and development of the pages.

(Federico Polvara – in Famiglia oggi, maggio-giugno 2009, Ed. San Paolo).