Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/Using Us

You may find this video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE. It is definitely an attention getter. It is so amazing how we can connect in so many ways through technology today. It's not just data anymore, it's people. You don't have to worry about the correct format or how the data is going to exchange to be able to create and design something or collaborate with someone across the world. Web 2.0, which is related to sharing, collaborating, and user-centered creation on the World Wide Web, allows remixing or mashing of data, and it completely formats together. Just as I was able to post the link above - I just entered in the website address, and it automatically became a link. Simple, but actually amazing! HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, is a language used to create web pages. Along with HTML, is now XML, Extensible Markup Language, which has increased simplicity for the user. It has increased the usability of the internet and World Wide Web. It allows you to share data with systems that would be incompatible without it. We are able to create things we have never created before - blogs, glogs, wikis, podcasts, social connections through facebook, myspace, etc.... without knowing technological jargon. There is so much out there that I didn't even know about until I took this course, but it is readily available and at the user's fingertips. And anyone can do it! There has been a dramatic increase of web users over the last few years, people who have never been able to connect and create through the internet before. I believe Professor Wesch gave this title to the video because the machine, which is technology itself, Web 2.0, is truly made up of "us", but in the same sense, it is only becoming smarter and stronger because of us, by using us. Web. 2.0 has allowed us to connect with each other in a way we haven't connected before. We have made it what it is....