Applying Web 2.0 to Technical Documentation

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : Applying Web 2.0 to Technical Documentation by Ellis Pratt

Introduction

This article is based on my presentation at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators' annual conference, in October 2006, on new trends in technical authoring. It covers the application of Web 2.0 technologies to technical documentation.

The three waves of interestingness

Every now and then, there are times where there is a change in the value of what a technical author delivers. These are moments when organisations pay attention to technical documentation. This is because they recognise these changes mean that they can create something that will be of real value to the business and to their customers.

In recent years, there have been three "waves of interestingness". The first wave was the introduction of Windows Help (WinHelp). The second major wave was the introduction of the Internet and intranets. This was a time when organisations looked at how they could take large amounts of information and put them online. They were faced with issues such as how could users access and understand all this information easily - issues which technical communicators deal with on a day-to-day basis.

I believe we're just about to approach the new wave, which we have called "Tech Writing 2.0".

What do we mean by Tech Writing 2.0?

Tech Writing 2.0 is application of Web 2.0 services and technologies to technical communication. Web 2.0 gives us the opportunity to significantly change the quality of what the users receive.

This new wave is not about the introduction of DITA or the introduction of the new Help format in Windows Vista. These two technologies will mainly affect what happens behind the scenes. What the user receives is unlikely to change significantly from what they received today.

What do we mean by Web 2.0?

Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as:

"A second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation, Web 2.0 gives users an experience closer to desktop applications than the traditional static Web pages."

Web 2.0. (2006, July 13). In Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=63603254.(1997), The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:14, July 14, 2006.

Within Wikipedia's definition, there are two themes:

• Devolving content creation to the users (i.e. the collaboration on content creation and sharing of knowledge)
• Providing a "rich user experience" (i.e. making Web applications feel more like desktop applications)

Another way of answering that question is to look at sites that people have called Web 2.0 sites. These include sites such as Lulu.com, Blogger.com, Flickr.com, Newsgator.com and Technorati.com. Within these we can see three common elements:

• Collaboration on content creation
• Conversation (wisdom of the crowds)
• Aggregation of knowledge

How can we apply Web 2.0 to technical communication?

Let's think about Web 2.0 could mean to technical writers. Not everything that comes under the banner of Web 2.0 impacts on the documentation world. Some of the techniques and technologies, however, can be used by technical authors to improve their documentation and the experience of those using it. It could allow you to:

• Gain a greater understanding of the issues users face. You can involve your customers in development, gather intelligence and sustain a constant dialogue. You can promote conversations between members that build trusted relationships, self-help and support teams, bodies of knowledge, special interest groups to name just a few.
• Provide better support. "The wisdom of the crowd" can emerge - the community members create new ideas and provide practical solutions for other members.
• Sell "value added" support information for a fee.
• Gain greater customer loyalty and trust.

Example - Collaboration

Today, it can be very difficult to incorporate content from third parties. In most situations, writers have to resort to "cut and paste", taking content from one document and pasting it into the master document. Writers find themselves spending considerable time modifying the formatting and structure so that it conforms to the rest of the document. They rarely have the power to dictate the structure and formatting to others. Collaborative publishing means projects where documents are created by many different people working together (collaboratively) rather than individually.

Web 2.0 offers a variety of ways to write collaboratively.

These might:

• be used as the principle authoring environment for documents.
• be integrated into a unified documentation set.
• sit alongside the "official" documentation.

The danger to technical communicators

However, it may be like the early days of the Internet. Companies may decide to implement Web 2.0, and not involve technical communicators in the process. New job titles and roles within businesses may appear to describe people that do this type of work. Indeed, the delivered service may not be seen as online Help or even user documentation.

Tech Writing 2.0 - Special report on new trends in user documentation
We have written a report that outlines these developments in more detail. See here for more details on Report on Tech Writing 2.0: New trends in user documentation.

About the Author
Ellis Pratt co-owns a technical writing consultancy called Cherryleaf Ltd. We work with developers of software who are afraid of losing their customers and frustrated with the cost of supporting them.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=314384

Web 2.0 in eCommerce

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : Web 2.0 in eCommerce by Nowshade Kabir

There has never been a better time to start an online business! According to Jupiter Research, a market research firm, online retail spending in the United States will increase to a whopping $95 billion in 2006. In Europe things are getting even better! In next five years the number of online shoppers will increase 75 percent and per person average spending will increase 50 percent. This will push European eCommerce to $335 billion by 2011.

If you are planning to start a new online business or upgrade your existing eCommerce site, you should consider using some of the innovative ideas related to Web 2.0 concept. Three years ago if you would have searched the phrase "Web 2.0", you probably would not have found any mention of this term on the Internet. Now, at the last count, Google showed close to 60 million results relevant to this search. Amazing! First time this term was coined by O'Reilly Media to vaguely define a concept of second generation websites which were emerging after the dot com crush. Since their first use of this phrase to promote conferences organized by O'Reilly Media and MediaLive International, the idea of Web 2.0 has become immensely popular in web development sector.

So, what is this Web 2.0 concept any way? There is no exact definition of Web 2.0 available today. If you run a search for a definition of this phrase the only quotation you will receive is from Wikipedia, which says, "Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes." Tell me if I am wrong, this definition does not give a slightest clue about what really is Web 2.0.

Tim O'Reilly himself explained the Web 2.0 phenomena in five pages of examples, abstract terminologies, sketches and jargon in a great article. Unfortunately, if you are not a very Internet-savvy person, you will have hard time understanding the concept clearly from this article. To make things worse if you read other articles on this subject you will be even more confused! The reason is simple! Being a new concept many ideas related to Web 2.0 are abstract and still forming. However, there are some fundamental principles and indicators of Web 2.0 ideology which are true for any Web 2.0 based sites even if it is an eCommerce one.

The problem with eCommerce is, although in last five years many changes, some are drastic, have taken place in philosophy, ideology and technology related to the Web, very few things have changed in eCommerce sites. Now, it all started to change! Even successful eCommerce sites are experimenting with new ideas born from Web 2.0 concept. The result is visible! A recent survey shows adoption of new interactive functionalities, innovative product catalog and better communication with users have increased online sales for 83 percent of respondents.

Earlier online merchants were not very keen to have customer interaction elements like product review and rating, online surveys, customer blogs, etc. fearing flames from unsatisfied customers. But a recent poll shows that this fear is unfounded. It seems that 9 percent shoppers polled wrote a product review on a store site about a product they liked against 4 percent who posted a review about a product they did not like. Same goes for surveys! There are 2.5 percent more chances that a satisfied customer will participate in a survey than an unsatisfied one.

Many eCommerce sites lose a large number of their prospective customers due to inadequate product information required to take an affirmative buying decision. Customer reviews and ratings can help merchants in this. More over a positive review works like a call for action for the people reading it. Most professional classification systems used in eBusiness are pretty complicated for daily use. A good way to give users a better method of finding product is to incorporate user added keywords or "tags". If a user likes a product and may buy it now, or may keep a reference of it for future use, she can add one or several informal keywords as tags and save. These tags are visible to others and can be displayed two ways: in tag clouds, where the most popular tags have bigger fonts and most recent tags, a list of newly added tags. The popularity of tags in numerous Web 2.0 sites proves viability of this device in eCommerce sites as well.

Elements like ability to do side-by-side comparison of several products, ability to customize products according to buyer's need, and the ability to filter and search products without constant page reloading can increase conversion rate dramatically.

Many eCommerce sites have the functionality of sending email notification of new listings of products that a user is looking for. A good idea is to add RSS notification ability to enhance product information request service also.

A staggering 60 percent of online shoppers abandon their carts at some point in the buying process. The following site functionalities will help businesses to retain these shoppers:

* Shoppers should have the ability to see thumbnail pictures of the products inside the shopping cart.

* Editing and adding products to the shopping cart should be done automatically without reloading.

* Shoppers should be able to save shopping cart anytime and it should be saved automatically if connection fails.

* Shoppers should be able to drag and drop products to the cart and all calculation should be done automatically.

Many of the functionalities mentioned in this article were available long before Web 2.0 concept emerged and these are only a miniscule number of examples of abilities you can actually add to your Web 2.0 based eCommerce site, however, if you fail to notice the progress and take necessary actions, you maybe losing a great opportunity. Transformation in eCommerce sites is slow, but one thing is for sure, in coming years these sites will be noticeably different from what we have now.

About the Author
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B eMarketplace with solutions to start and run online business.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=311434

Church Website Design And Web 2.0-effective Web Techniques For Fulfilling The Great Commission

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : Church Website Design And Web 2.0-effective Web Techniques For Fulfilling The Great Commission by Brooks Patton

Wikipedia describes Web 2.0 as an often-misused phrase that refers to second-generation Internet-based services that allow people to share and collaborate in previously unavailable ways. If you cut through the marketing hype of this term, you're left with a simple concept: the web is no longer a static medium with limited or one-way communication. Fully utilized, static church websites, with little or no reach, can be transformed into community-building, self-propagating, communication powerhouses with enormous reach. Is this important to your ministry? No. It's not important; it's critical. Let me explain.

A church, by its very definition, is a community of like-minded individuals who share and collaborate on a common belief and mission. More importantly, in Christian churches, the spreading of this message is accomplished by members of that community sharing their beliefs with others. By utilizing the communication vehicles currently associated with the term "Web 2.0," you effectively replicate your physical church and mission on the web. Unlike your local congregation, however, the web-enabled version has instant global reach.

Here's an example: as a pastor you give your sermon to your congregation on Sunday morning. The reach of this sermon is limited to the people present, and anyone with whom they may verbally share that message. What if that same sermon could be available globally, appearing automatically in subscribers' podcasting software halfway around the world, within hours of the original? What if these same subscribers were to share that sermon with friends, the original propagating from MP3 player to MP3 player, around the world? Suddenly, your non-congregational reach is exponential. Not only is this scenario possible, it is readily available. Believe it or not, podcasting refers to only one vehicle of what currently constitutes "Web 2.0." There are many other such vehicles, each with its own ability to reach separate web populations.
Given the Great Commission all Christian churches are tasked with, utilizing these tools is critical, as any means of exponentially increasing your listener base should be. To follow is a short list of features which should be utilized in your current church website design, or used as a checklist for commercially available systems.

Audio Library: Sermons are the most tangible commodity of a church, and subsequently, should get primary attention. An audio library, distinctly separate from the previously mentioned podcasting stream, allows you to make all recorded features, from sermons to music to instruction, available for online listening and download-capable for later use. This feature should be extremely easy to navigate for your users so that they can quickly locate specific recordings.

Video Streaming: While still bandwidth intensive, video, like audio, can be a very effective medium for spreading the gospel. Where possible, audio should be used unless there are significant visual reasons to do so otherwise. Visual presentations and performances are better candidates for this than the typical Sunday sermon.

Podcasting Feeds: A podcast feed is an audio subscription initiated by users who click on your feed link. If you have ever subscribed to a favorite television series with a Tivo, then you're already familiar with how a podcast works in conjunction with podcast software, such as Apple iTunes. By clicking on your podcast link, users are subscribed, via their podcast software, and subsequent sermons will download automatically for them, becoming instantly available for use on their MP3 players. This is a separate feature from your Audio Library, as podcasts should be regularly scheduled recordings, as a rule of thumb. You may have a great variety of recorded material available, but you may not want every recording linked as part of a regular podcast feed. Make sure any system that you are considering makes this distinction.

Blogging: Blogging is the perfect online mechanism for your pastoral staff to reflect and provide guidance between Sundays. Pastoral staff blogs can help bring repeat visitors to your site and provide a platform for personal insight, that goes beyond the confines and structure of Sunday's sermon. Entire search engines exist for blogs and, because of this, ministries have an enormous opportunity to reach entirely new readers. The most effective blogging will involve having your own blog server versus a freebie account in a shared environment.

Newsletter Management: Electronic newsletters simply cannot be ignored for effective ministry due to their viral nature. A commonly used marketing term, viral marketing refers to the act of one person sending or forwarding information, they found helpful, to others who they know might benefit from it. In other words, an effective newsletter not only finds its way to the subscribers, but they typically forward meaningful newsletters to others. Many factors influence the effectiveness of this method including subscriber management, the quality of the content, and the focus on gaining new subscribers.

Forums: Adequately moderated, church website forums can provide the perfect means for developing a community around your online ministry. Topics can be discussed or debated, church classes can have their own forums for collaborating on teachings, and questions about the faith can be answered. While there are some obvious requirements for moderation, a good system will allow several layers of control that provide a balance of administrative control and management ease specific to your needs and abilities.

Image Galleries: Image galleries provide far more than the obvious display of happy times within your congregation. A well-made gallery will allow optional user interaction, such as rating and voting, in addition to commentary. Most importantly, make certain your system has the ability to send pictures as e-cards. As previously mentioned, this feature is viral in nature, allowing users to send selected images as postcards with greetings to friends, again, greatly extending your online reach.

Events Calendar: No church website design would be complete without a full-featured, fully searchable events calendar. Events can be the lifeblood of a church, and getting the message out, about those events, is mission-critical.

User Polls: While sometimes overused in secular websites, user polls on a church website can be extremely effective for several reasons. Religion and politics have long been the start of many a debate and. as a result, most people are very willing to give their opinions on either topic. By providing effective, anonymous polls, you not only encourage user interaction, but you can gain a better understanding of the mindset of your site visitors. Many times, this can provide great material for sermons!

Email to friend: This little feature should appear on every page of significant content throughout your church website. Its function is to provide a means for site visitors to email a specific page they think might be of interest to their friends. This feature, while seemingly small, is also viral in nature (one person receives it and sends to another) and can have a significant impact in your ministry's reach.

Search-Engine Optimization: Whether you are attempting your church website design by hand, or are using a commercial system, make absolutely certain that you don't overlook good search-engine optimization practice. Without going into a long description of the function of each, make sure that any system you use automates accurate meta tag creation, has a reciprocal link-management system and, if your site is dynamic (database- driven). that URLs are rewritten as search-engine friendly. Overlooking these items will result in decreased search-engine positioning, so pay close attention to these. As your site grows, the more important the automation or near-automation of these functions become.

Multi-Lingual Page Translation: While there is no true 100%-accurate page-translation service available, there are some that do an outstanding job. Make sure that all your content pages have some form of multi-lingual translation capabilities. The more languages you can translate into, the more lives you are likely to impact on a global scale.

RSS Feeds: RSS feeds provide a similar subscription method as podcast feeds do, but they are focused on textual content versus audio. These feeds can be established throughout your site and alert subscribers to changes in content, without them having to browse your site. Areas of your site that do not frequently change (like your statement of faith) are not good candidates for an RSS feed, while constantly updated content areas are. Forums, for example, are great places to deploy an RSS feed, as replies and responses to ongoing threads update frequently.

About the Author
Brooks Patton is founder of The Church Site Project, an integrated, web-content-management system, and online church community suite, designed to meet the needs of modern church website design standards.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=311144

A profitable web 2.0 project developed in 24 hours

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : A profitable web 2.0 project developed in 24 hours by Paul Fisher

It took seven months to get the One Million Masterpiece charity project online. The site is complex and needed the development time, but in the last few days I've had a yearning to see if I can still turn around a project in 24 hours. Back in the early days of the Internet boom I'd sit in my bedroom and knock out html websites all night long, but almost ten years on, can it still be done in a time where profitability and interactivity are the key measures?

So, it's 7am and I've got a plan. The new pressures I face in life (work responsibilities, family etc) have been dealt with and I have a clear 24 hours ahead of me. An idea for a site has been kicking round in my head ever since I sold a site last year. This site was a very specialist software comparison site that generated referral commissions and Adsense income. It was an excellent earner and I've wanted to recreate that success, but on a larger scale. So last year I bought the domain http://www.shoutdown.net/ with the intention of building a software comparison style project. I want the site to be in the informal blog style, where the posts are product summaries (written by me), and the comments would be reviews submitted by other people. I'd also throw in a rating system, and way of attaching news releases or other relevant pages to each product post, plus link related posts (for example different versions of the same software). So the idea is there, it's 7:30am and my first job is to select some mp3's to get me through to lunch. Here goes...

08.00 By the time I've chosen my music, switched off my Google desktop bar and responded to essential email it's already 8am - crap. So, first job is drawing out a schematic of the database that will power my site. What information do I want to keep and how will I organise it? I'm having five database tables. For ease I'm calling them level1, level2, level3 etc because I see them as levels of information about each software product - the top being category information and the bottom being the reviews and ratings.

09:15 Took me quite a while to get the structure clear, but now I'm sketching out the homepage on paper. I've looked at a few blogs that I like and have basically copied their layout for ease. I've also worked out the sizing of my main columns and rows and know the positions of the adverts, main blog posts and navigation. I still like to work on paper at this stage - I'm an artist at heart!

09:55 OK let's get on the computer. I've fired up Paint Shop Pro and my first job is to work out a colour pallet. I want three colours, so I blob different combinations on a blank white image until I get the right combination - orange, purple and grey. I then make a note of the hex codes for each colour on a post-it - this will save LOADS of time later. While I'm in PSP I'm going to mock up a logo as I already know the size of image I need from my plan. Actually I really like the logo so it will probably be permanent.

10:21 Time to start on the site. I'm using a single html page at the moment with a linked css file. Using some basic tables and css I've laid out the top bar, the post area and two columns (one for ads and one for navigation). I'm sticking to a tried and tested blog layout. I always use Dreamweaver, but always hand code. Why use Dreamweaver then? Well, I find the preview quite accurate, but other than that I have no idea - just habit.

11:38 I've just finished the main site layout, including place holding text that will eventually be dynamic. I've left space for some ads on the site, so I've justed logged in to Adsense to generate the code. All I need to do is use the colours on my post-it to get them fitting in nicely. I'll also take a look round for some other nice banners in my affiliate accounts.

12:43 That took longer than planned, time for lunch

13:17 OK time to fill up my database with some data, then I can start writing the php that will populate the pages. I'm going to sign up for a few software affiliate accounts and write some sample reviews on the software. At the moment I haven't got time to write really good reviews, but in time I intend to fully try each title and write some good stuff (positive and negative). For now I'll be brief.

15:20 Right, let's get back to the site. I'm going to sort out the navigation side bars first, and then I'll split my single page up.

16:45 This isn't working. I've got a very limited knowledge of php so I'm having trouble dynamically generating category headings and software lists dynamically. It's taking too long to sort out so for now I'm going to simply print a list of all software titles in the database. I'll make up for it by also providing a list of software categories, plus a list of the most reviewed software.

16:58 I'm going to split up my single html page now into a header, body, nav and footer, and use a php include to pull the pages together. In total I will only need three main template pages for the content of this site - the homepage, a category page and a product page.

18:24 I've finished the layout of the three pages, including all the code that pulls info from the database. Everything's working pretty well and I'm please with the simplicity. My next job is to create an rss feed of the posts and reviews, but first I need some DINNER!

20:04 After some pasta and tv I'm ready for this rss feed. It's pretty easy to create a php page that will pull the necessary code and place it in the rss 2.0 layout. Once I'm done I'll just save the php file as xml and ensure that my .htaccess file remembers to parse xml files for php code.

21:36 I checked that the rss feed was valid using a standard validator. It took a little time to sort out the date formatting to be honest.

21:57 I've been developing using Firefox to test the layout, but I just checked the site in IE and noticed the background colour was dodgy. It was a css error - fixed.

22:15 OK back to content. The reviews at the moment are boring so I'm going to add some images and expand them a little. I'm also going to add some reviews that I've been collecting over the last few months. The good thing about buying the domain and posting up a test website for six months is that the search engines have already crawled the site, and hopefully will help me avoid the Google sandbox.

02:30 I'm absolutely knackered. I've just spent the last few hours trying to get the navigation system working but with no luck. The problem is that I'm trying to dynamically generate an information tree (apparently that's what it's called after much research) but I just can't get it working. I'm giving up.

04:49 OK, I've just created a rating system which will only accept one software vote per IP address. Seems a bit buggy but I really really tired and can't be bothered to go through it again now.

So what's left to do? I need to create forms to input reviews, news and bookmarks but I'm just too tired to continue. So much for 24 hours, but actually I'm really pleased with the result. On the surface the site looks like any other blog, and you might question why I decided to hand code the entire thing. Well, I have some ideas for some advanced functions, but I'll only be able to implement them if I know the site inside out. Plus I just like the challenge.

I wont have time to work on the site all week, but I'm already planning my next 24 hour session - marketing. I'll be sure to keep you updated on that, and how the site is doing generally!

About the Author
Paul Fisher is an entrepreneur whose ventures include theonemillionmasterpiece.com arts project, a restaurant chain and several successful websites. View his personal blog at http://www.thepaulfisherblog.blogspot.com/

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=310891

Web 2.0 B2B Social Networking

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : Web 2.0 B2B Social Networking by Sam Bowen

Despite its now rampant popularity across the internet you still may not at this point have heard of the term "Social Networking" in relation to the internet. Social Networking refers to the development and then utilization of an online community website for the purposes of meeting other people. This type of website began with friendship type networks like the now billion dollar "Myspace" but it was only a matter of time before it was adapted to a group of people who could benefit from this phenomenon perhaps more than any other: Business people. This article will explore the benefits of what is called BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking.

WEB 2.0 BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking sites operate by a business registering an account with the home website that is usually free then gaining the ability to create a profile about their business that is publicly viewable over the internet. They then become part of a community of other business owners who have also created profiles, and can meet and interact with these people in various ways such as email, instant messaging, chat, forums and more. The idea of BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking is for the business owner to meet as many other likeminded individuals as possible in order to leverage knowledge and information as well as in some cases ideas or even customers in a community environment.

The benefits of BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking for business owners are many. The first benefit is the ability to gain free advertising for their business and mission on the internet. Most small businesses pay large amounts of money to get the right people to see their advertisements and while BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking won't replace this it does provide another viable option by which to generate leads and increase exposure to their business. Of course this is particularly relevant for those businesses who offer products or services to other business (ie. BUSINESS TO BUSINESS products) and for them it creates a virtual marketplace and as such a wealth of opportunity.

The main benefit of BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking however is the people factor. Some people still believe that "It's not what you know it's who you know" and so the ability to meet large numbers of business people particularly that share the same geographical location can be highly valuable. It can give business owners the ability to share skills, connect each other to better ways of operating and introduce one another to people or methods that can help increase profits. For example you might run a shop and be able to find out through networking with other shop owners in your area what is the cheapest place to buy certain stock.

As you can see, if you own any kind of business there are definite advantages to participating in the new craze of BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking. In business any small advantage you can get is important, and BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Social Networking is one that for many businesses is providing an advantage that is anything but small.

About the Author
Sam Bowen's vehicle of choice for fast wealth creation is Direct Matches, The Free Online Advertising/Networking Service. One of his websites: Science Of Getting Rich is a prime example of the kind of quality audio book packages he provides.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=307233

10 Link Building Tips for Web 2.0

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : 10 Link Building Tips for Web 2.0 by Julia Hyde

I expect most of you have heard of Web 2.0. If you haven't, Wikipedia defines it as "a second-generation of Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways."

Now, we all know that the Internet is about sharing information, so what's new? And how does Web 2.0 affect your online business?

Web 2.0 is all about the rise of consumer-driven content--social networking sites (My Space and Facebook), Folksomonies (Flickr and Del.icio.us), and Wikis (Wikipedia).

What makes Web 2.0 interesting from an online marketing point of view is that it offers (among other things) more link building opportunities for website owners. And we all know how important links are in the search engine optimization game. If you've forgotten, here's an article on the importance of link building that will refresh your memory.

So, with Web 2.0 and link building in mind, I thought I try to come up with 10 link building techniques for Web 2.0. I'm sure there's more (some of mine are oldies but goodies) so if any of you have suggestions, feel free comment on this article online at http://www.juliahyde.com/mw/link-building-techniques.

10 Link Building Techniques for Web 2.0

1. Make your site, and your content worth linking to. This may seem like obvious but you'd be amazed how many times I get link requests from sites that are a total mess. Not just design-wise but poorly thought-out or lacking in relevant, useful content. If you want to attract links from good quality sites make sure your site is of equal quality. Think bricks and mortar: you wouldn't want your upscale retail fashion studio to be associated with a flea market.

2. Write and syndicate industry relevant articles. Oh, the power of a great article. Did you know that article sites like Goarticles, isnare and Ideamarketers.com's pages often rank high in the search engine results? Well, they do. And what's more they can send targeted traffic your way.
Keep on the look-out for news in your industry then write an article on the subject. How-to articles like this on are particularly popular with readers and they're easy to write. You can also submit your articles to social book-marking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us or Technorati. If your article gets elevated to the number one spot on Digg, hundreds of bloggers looking for content will see your site and may link to it.

3. Get the press on your side. Public relations is not only a great way to spread the word about your company news but it can also attract links to your site. Either hire a public relations consultant or write your own press releases and submit them to hundreds of journalists, bloggers and media outlets via PRWeb or PRNewswire. A recent press release we submitted for a client resulted in several links to their site, and an increase in sales.

4. Start your own blog. Yes, you do need one. Whatever it is you sell or whatever service you provide, there are people out there who are interested in what you have to say. Post useful information regularly; make your execution flawless and your grammar and punctuation spot on. You'll be surprised how easy it is to get people to engage in discussions and link back to your site.

5. Create your own directory. Although this is an old method of attracting links, it still works today. Build a directory of sites that relate but don't directly compete with yours. Not only does a directory provide your visitors with useful information, it also builds incoming links.

6. Submit your site to directories. Yahoo, DMOZ and other directories are still worth submitting to. Some directories allow free submissions others require a one-time or yearly fee. Whether they require payment or not, satisfy yourself about the quality of the directory before you submit. Remember: incoming links of low-quality may reflect badly on you.

7. Sponsor or donate to a dot org. When search engines think "authority" websites, chances are they're thinking of charitable organizations. So, a link or two from a few .org domains will help. Consider making a donation to charities or providing products or services free to charities that are relevant to your industry. Many non-profits link to businesses that help them in some way. You'll gain quality links, attract free publicity (you can even write and submit a press release about your charitable tendencies), and best of all, you'll feel good.

8. Network locally. Join your local chamber of commerce and the Better Business Bureau - you'll receive a high-quality link back when they list your company on their sites. Submit to city and government resource sites and develop business relationships with non-competing companies locally - you'll profit online and off. 9. Be Sociable.

Many large companies are setting up pages on MySpace, Squidoo and other social networking sites. You can too. Use these sites to create "buzz" and position yourself as an expert in your field, not to aggressively advertise your products or services.

10. Pay-per-click Consider using paid search advertising on Google, Yahoo or MSN to sell your products, build brand awareness, and create a few links from relevant content sites. Of course, the main objective is to sell, but, even if you don't sell much using this channel, people who come to your site through your ads, may like it so much they'll link to you.

About the Author
Julia Hyde is an advertising copywriter and consultant specializing in search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and traditional advertising. She currently runs Creative Search Media, a full-service advertising and search engine marketing agency. You can contact Julia via her website at http://www.juliahyde.com or email mailto:Julia@juliahyde.com

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=298970

Website SEO and Web 2.0

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : Website SEO and Web 2.0 by Robert McCulloch

New sites no longer need to be submitted to a search engine to be listed in their results. A link from an established website will get the search engines to visit the new website and spider its contents. It can take a few days or even weeks for search engine spiders to visit and indexing a new site.

Once the search engine has found a new website it will start to index the pages on the site as long as the pages are linked with each other. Pages which are accessible only through Flash or Javascript links are not indexed.

Search engine look at a number of different factors when crawling a web page and many pages may not be indexed by the search engines. The number of links or levels from the root directory of a site is an important factor in whether or not a page gets crawled.

Webmasters can instruct spiders not to index certain files or directories through the standard robots.txt file in the root directory of the domain. Standard practice requires a search engine to check this file when visiting the website A webmaster can use this file to prevent pages such as shopping carts or other dynamic content from appearing in search engine results.

For those search engines with paid submission, it may save some time to pay a nominal fee for submission. Yahoo guarantees inclusion in their search results, but does not guarantee specific ranking within the search results.

Blogs change every thing about how search engines find web pages. A Blog is an online discussion website or a log of a persons thoughts. This allows a webmaster and/or his visitors to voice their opinion on a specific subject in a very friendly and simple way.

A Ping is a method of informing the blog community and the search engines that you have updated your blog and a new post or comment has been made to your blog. So if you have new web pages you want indexed, post a message with a link to the new pages on a blog and they will get indexed much faster than if the link was on a website.

Not only is a blog great for getting a web page indexed, they create clean code with the click of a button. Just type your message and click the "Publish" and you've got a new web page. But even more important is the speed at which the search engines index blog content. A search engine will index blog content in as little time as a few hours. I have even seen search engines hit a blog within seconds of posting a message to the blog as long as the ping function is working.

Now repeat that blog and ping process three to five times a week and before you know it you have a lot of high quality web content. And that is just what the search engines like the most!
To get quality inbound links to your blog, don't use Reciprocal Link programs. Google does not like reciprocal linking to get PageRank for your website. Use comments on other blogs like your own. But do not spam! Another good method to get one way links is article submission. To learn more about website promotion and SEO with Web 2.0, visit http://website-promotion-blog.info.
Automate the Tag and Ping process. Promote on Social Bookmarking websites. Get lots of inbound one-way links from high PR blogs. Post comments on high PR blogs without spamming. Improve Google AdSense profits. Learn how to automate article submission for SEO.
Visit http://website-promotion-blog.info/.

About the Author
Robert McCulloch does SEO via Web 2.0, Social Bookmarking, Syndication and Automation. http://website-promotion-blog.info - seokeywords@hotmail.com

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=296577

3 New Web 2.0 Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Website

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Articles - Web 2.0

3 New Web 2.0 Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Website by Mohamad Latiff Bin Rahim

It's official. The Web 2.0 is here. If you have no idea at all that it is already here or what it is in the first place, then you must have been living in the cave for the past 5 years.

Face it. If you're still using some of the outdated Web 1.0 methods to increase traffic to your website, you may still get some results out of your marketing efforts but you will eventually lose out to the newer guys who go Web 2.0.

Now let me share with you 3 tips on how to increase traffic to your website, the Web 2.0 way.
1. Think viral. The concept of viral marketing will never die out. The Viral meme is what defined and made Life in the first place. For as long as there is Life, the concept of the Virus (biological, marketing, electronic, etc) will still continue to haunt us - for good or ill.

There are 2 basic elements that determine the success of your marketing virus:-
I) The strength of your viral marketing message, or in the words of Mark Joyner, its "Buzz-worthiness", that is, its merit or quality that makes people want to tell others about it because it is so good.

II) The mechanism by which the virus must spread. Is it easy to spread the message? Must your referrers go through an elaborate and troublesome process to spread the message? Or need they only do what they've always been easily doing in order to spread your viral message?
From the above 2 elements, you already have an action plan formulated for you that can be condensed into one sentence:- create a message that promotes your website, be it in the form of a video, audio, multimedia, text, blog or a whacky buzzword, that is truly "buzz-worthy" and at the same time easy to spread via existing networks.

2. Attack the Social Networks. Either exploit the existing social networks such as MySpace, Friendster, Squidoo, etc, or create one of your own that is built around your niche.
There are many Friendster or MySpace clones out there available for download (for a fee of course) which you can use, tweak or get a programming expert friend of yours to develop a Social Network of your own that is built around the niche that you're involved with.

A good way to market through Social Networks is by having an interesting profile that offers consistently updated information about yourself and your business or your website. Duplicate your blog in your MySpace or Friendster blog as any updates to your profile or blog will be reflected to the friends in your network.

Browse the Social Networks for friends who share the same interests and passions as you and add them as friends. Send private messages to them and work something out. Say you're starting a private group of like-minded people who are passionate about whatever it is your niche is about. Mention incentives such as money, exclusivity, fame, etc.
Place a limit to the number of people who can join this private club of yours and be sure to include only those people who have lots of friends in their network, perhaps ranging in the hundreds.

3. Blogging, of course, is one of those defining elements of Web 2.0.
There are different approaches to exploiting the Blogging phenomenon to market your website. One is to have a blog of your own. The other is to somehow enable others to have blogs hosted by you. But if you go the second route, you'll face tough competition from Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, etc.

The trick is to create a service or software which has something the others do not have. Or you can create a service, software, tool or tip page that complements your so-called competition by giving something of benefit to users of such blogging services.

One way is to offer RSS feeds tools that enable other bloggers to syndicate their content to other websites or deliver their feeds to their readers' desktops or emails.

Another way is to give other bloggers the opportunity to include "Bookmark" links on their blogs. Websites such as http://Del.Icio.Us or Digg offers users the ability to share their favourite websites with other people.

You can exploit this phenomenon by creating an account with the various social bookmarking sites and sharing links to your websites or you can create cool-looking "Bookmark This" icons for other bloggers and get them to link to your website in return.

If you write a blog of your own, you can market your blog by visiting other people's blogs and leaving useful and beneficial comments on them. Most of the time their comments forms enable you to include a link back to you in their comments page.

Browse the blogs around your niche and most of the time they have a link saying "Links to this Post". This enables you to link to their posts in your blog if you happen to like their blog posts. Give and take. Blog about another person's blog and a link to your website may appear in that person's blog in return. This process is automatic.

There you have it - 3 new Web 2.0 ways to increase traffic to your website. In truth, there are literally hundreds of other ways to improve your website marketing the Web 2.0 way that are not covered here in this article. Now it is up to you to apply what you have learned here and come up with something that is even better.

About the Author
Mohamad Latiff is the Creator of the Traffic Time Bomb, a revolutionary software that will exponentially increase traffic to your website by the power of viral marketing.

Source: www.goarticles.com

When 2.0 : What is and why is Web 2.0

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Articles - Web 2.0

When 2.0 : What is and why is Web 2.0 by Keith Trigwell

I've recently taken on a rather large job in London, which means I'm on the train at some ghastly hour heading into the smoke.

I've been using this 'downtime' to enjoy some interesting web design podcasts, including those that purport to be related to the Web 2.0 'phenomenon', if indeed it is one. Something I'd been wholly ignoring because I'm frankly too busy to be doing with pretending that I'm sat on the 'bleeding' edge of technology when I know that there is nothing new here at all. In fact the debate seems to be ongoing as to whether web 2.0 exists at all with Tim Berners-Lee, the supposed 'father of the internet' believing that it doesn't really, notably because it doesn't actually hinge on any new technology at all.

When I first heard of Web 2.0 I had been wondering if it was something incredible that had happened while I was asleep or filling the car up. But no, apparently not.

It's just new terminology, coined by O'Reilly, which has finally seeped around industry through management meetings, business lunches and other assorted pissing contests and now people are starting to ask me.

So what you want to know is if web 2.0 is something you should be asking about. Will it benefit your business, what is it, how is it, is it at all?

My take on it is this. Web 2.0 describes
· Ways in which old technology is now being used properly (web standards.. ahem, yes web standards, ignore them at your peril)· The addition of more community-connecting features, e.g. blogging, tag clouds, syndicated content· Different design concepts. User friendliness, sweeping curves, easy on the eye, not too much info. Favouring Sans Serif, pastel colours, large fonts and generally nothing that actually makes the site more potentially useful as mush as easier to use. ... Basically as Fisher Price web design. Chunky buttons for little fingers.Frankly, I think sites are heading this way anyway and have been for a long time. With or without O'Reilly press.
But in terms of layout designs, despite all the propeller-head debates that we could have about Web 2.0, I think my area of interest with it lies in the concept of HOW it can be applied appropriately, to be of benefit.

I can't help but think that maybe one of the areas of opportunity is the potential use of the design to create more appealing promotional material.

I dont think web site design itself needs to be dumbed down at all, especially as they all tend to be heading more towards the ultra useful portal description anyway (the other side of Web 2.0?). However, like may other people I have built up an immunity to online advertising, be them banner adverts, emails, syndications. I automatically switch off.

I am sure if there was a more engaging way of getting information about products I WANT to know about to me in a way which doesn't automatically place me in a coma then that would actually be a good thing for the user as well as business.

So I'm going to ponder on this for a while and ask some of my direct marketing expert type colleagues to see what can be done.

I'll have a hard job convincing them that despite the fact that black Times New Roman text on red and yellow backgrounds might have worked quite well in the past, that there could be more to be gained encouraging users to read the mails a little more.

About the Author
Since 1999, Keith Trigwell has managed some of the worlds largest web sites from www.wimbledon.org through to www.england-rugby.com and has been at the cutting edge of applying web technology since the fledgeling days of the internet working in fields from the music industry to selling blue chip sports cars.

Source: www.goarticles.com

SEO & Link Building for Web 2.0 - Social Bookmarking Secrets

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Articles - Web 2.0

SEO & Link Building for Web 2.0 - Social Bookmarking Secrets by Ross Goldberg

You need to think about what it would take for you to become the renowned expert in your field. You must offer content that is original and valuable to a consumer. Only then, will you conquer the major search engines.

One way link building is the core part of search engine marketing. There are many simple ways to obtain one way links: directories, articles, press releases, and most importantly social bookmarking. When you submit your website to a directory, the directory has an editor take a look at your website and either approve or deny it based on their rules. If you are approved, you will gain the all important one way link pointing to your website. Directories need to accept new submissions to keep their content fresh. This makes the search engines and consumers happy.
Social Bookmarking gives YOU all of the power. You select your site and use a social bookmarking website to gain one automatic backlink. It does not stop there! Then, you add tags to the listing. The secret here is that you get a link to your site on every single tag page as well. That can result in anywhere from 10 to 20 one way links per social bookmarking site! You must make sure that your website offers unique, relevant, highly valuable content. If it does, other people will bookmark your website as well. The more people bookmark your site, the better traffic you will gain from that social bookmarking website.

Social Bookmarking is the best way to create an internet buzz about your products or your company. If you offer unique content that people will find useful, you have outstanding odds of ending up on the front page of social bookmarking websites. If your link is on the frontpage, you will receive a large amount of traffic for the effort.

If you do not offer outstanding content on your website, you will still gain the all important one way links to your website. Even negative reviews of your site will not change the ways the search engines see your link. Search engines look for new relevant content. All you have to do is provide it to them!

The most important aspect of social bookmarking is spam. Most sites allow their users to either vote on the importance of a site, or allow them to ignore you and your site slowly goes away. Don't ruin this great opportunity for the other internet marketers out there. Social bookmarking is based on the idea of a sites popularity being decided by the visitors of that site. Make sure you are adding important sites that you use every day to these sites, as well as your own personal websites. Social bookmarking is meant for the entire community to enjoy. You should cater your bookmarks to a person that would find them, not the major search engines. You can be sure that the search engines will figure out how to find social bookmarking spam, just like they've found all of the other spamming methods.

Link exchanges are a thing of the past. The only time when link exchanges work is when they provide useful information and products to your customers. Otherwise, link exchanges are nearly useless. Search Engines have figured out the idea behind the link exchange and have lowered the value of exchanged links to almost nothing.

Links are the most important aspect of search engine optimization, according to all three of the major search engines.

Even the links you use inside of your website count. MSN, Yahoo, and Google all analyze your site's inner linking structure to figure out what keywords are most important to your website. This is the best way for them to find which keywords are important in regards to your company.
Spamming of search engines is on the rapid decline, because search engines have become smarter than most of us.

Use your head and you should be soaring to the top of the search engines in no time! Here are some tools that will help:

http://www.onlywire.com - Onlywire is a web-based social bookmarking tool. It allows you to format your bookmark once and submit it to the 15 most popular social bookmarking websites in one shot! Talk about a timesaver!

http://ekstreme.com/socializer - The socializer is a site that makes social bookmarking a breeze. You add socializer to your favorites and when you find a site worth bookmarking (including your own of course), you click on the item in your favorites that states "socialize this". It then saves the web address and title of the page and sends you to an area where 50 different social bookmarking websites reside. There is a little more effort involved here, but 50 bookmarks is definitely worth the time involved.

www.tagtooga.com/pg/delicioso - Delicioso is a desktop based tool that allows you operates similar to onlywire. It allows you to submit your bookmarks to tagtooga.com, del.icio.us, furl.net, blogmarks.net, shadows.com, spurl.net, simpy.com, and netvouz.com at once shot. Definitely a worthwile tool.

About the Author
Ross Goldberg is an internet marketer and information product creator. He is the creator of the SEO Diamond Course.

Source: www.goarticles.com

Adding Web 2.0 Social Bookmarks to a WordPress Blog

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Articles - Web 2.0

Adding Web 2.0 Social Bookmarks to a WordPress Blog by Oleg Ishenko, SEOResearcher.com

Originally published at How To Add Web 2.0 Tagging Links to a WordPress Blog
Web 2.0 Tagging and Blogs

Do you use Web 2.0 tagging websites? Well, I do. They are so much handier than the traditional browser bookmarks! I can easily access my favorites' list at home, at the university campus, at cyber cafes, at airports or train stations. I can always find something interesting by looking at what other people tag. By now millions of Internet users have discovered the advantages of the social web sites like Digg, Fark, Del.icio.us and others. These websites bring huge benefits to webmasters as well. When your visitors tag your content they affirm that it is actually interesting and useful. And since most of the social websites allow favorites lists sharing, or use tags as a scoring parameter to rank news entries, thousands of other members can easily discover and visit your site. So social and tagging websites are indeed a great way to promote a site. By adding links to Web 2.0 tagging resources to your posts you remind the visitors to bookmark your content. Besides, including the post url and title as parameters into the link code simplifies the task of tagging.

How can you do it in your Wordpress blog? Quite easily. You don't need to have PHP or CSS skills; although you have to understand what your Stylesheet and Main Index Template are for. In this tutorial we are going to create a panel of social bookmarks to be displayed above the comments block in your WordPress blog entires. Proceed to the Web 2.0 Social Bookmarks tutorial.

About the Author
Oleg Ishenko, SEOResearcher.com Get more useful info at our SEO and Web Marketing Study

Source: www.goarticles.com

Marketing And Web 2.0

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Articles - Web 2.0

Marketing And Web 2.0 by Andrew Corner

You've heard things about Web 2.0, all that new internet stuff, new internet bubble talk. But mostly, all you've probably heard are people throwing around the term like they know what it means. There are debates going on about Web 2.0, but even those who conceptualize it don't know for sure what it is. They can't give limits, clear definitions, and such. If there's one thing clear about this new Web, it is its efficiency as a marketer. Businesses are using the new Web platform to promote their services and products. Ingenuity at its finest and simplest.

Why Web 2.0 marketing? Well, it makes sense for starters. Let's look at a rundown of the general characteristics it is supposed to have. First, it's interactive, which means that web pages are no longer static and they don't take a million years to load anymore. They have applets, pop-ups, and wikis that actually let users play a game, get product information, and contact customer service quickly.

Second, it fosters user/consumer participation. Instead of just reading information and reviews posted on the websites, people can write their own reviews on Web 2.0 platforms. This gives the idea that rather than being plain promotions, these reviews are from people who actually used the product. Consumers don't readily trust online promotions but if they actually wrote a review for a product, there's no reason not to believe what others say about other products. Thus, there is instant trust online.

Third, applications like broadband internet encourage people to use computers and stay online longer. Statistics show that more and more people are using computers for tasks that they normally use a paper and pen for since Web 2.0 came along. Planning, organizing, filing taxes, and even banking. What's more is that they are also using computers for errands like shopping. For businesses using Web marketing, this translates to a larger consumer base.

Fourth, Web 2.0 marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing options. If you're familiar with http://Myspace.com, try looking up the square burger character from the latest Wendy's commercial -- it has its own account. Not only that, so far, 90,000 people are connected to it. There are thousands of free advertising from a free social networking site.

Of course, Web 2.0 does not eliminate the customary banners and press releases. But why not bank on a cheaper and more efficient marketing option while you're at it? Is Web 2.0 just a buzzword, a revolutionary concept, or just another Web flub? Well, nobody's sure at the moment, but it sure is a good business tool.

About the Author
For more valuable information on Web 2.0, please visit http://www.whatisweb20.net

Source: www.goarticles.com

Get, Set, Go - Web 2.0

Get, Set, Go - Web 2.0 by Sasha Masand

A few years ago Bill Gates peddled the idea of Convergence. It was the new mantra then that became a buzzword for the Internet Industry. Of course that promised marriage between the Television and the PC/Internet didn't quite materialize.

Microsoft lost millions in their MSN TV initiative. That was then, now the tide seems to be finally turning. While people may not have taken to the idea of surfing the Internet on their TV screens, they seem to be ready for their PC screens turning into televisions.

Technically you could watch TV shows on any computer with a built in TV/Tuner card since a few years ago. What is now driving the rapid acceptance of the TV and computer coming together is what they call Web 2.0 or the second version of the World Wide Web. Where interaction over the net will rise to the next level. Boring humdrum websites will come alive with sound and pictures. We will have all are daily information served up on highly customized widgets and television and radio served up to us in super clear High Definition. Basically it is everything we do today on the Internet only better.

The stars are clearly aligning themselves for the next step forward. Google and Yahoo have taken initiatives towards video over the net. It's a start but still has a long way to go. Take for instance Googles new search ability purely for videos. The concept is nice but when the No. 1 spot on their search ranking is "Girl caught cheating on her web cam" you know we have a long way to go. Almost all the marketing bulletin boards on the net were spinning on the news that Google was going to offer video ads and start taking a chunk out of the television ad industry. While this may be a distant possibility it's not going to happen any time soon.

The major difference between the TV and the Internet is in their nature of medium. One of the reasons why the promised convergence never happened before is that TV is a passive activity while the Internet is an active one. The television dishes out information, we choose to either receive it or switch the channel, on the other hand on the World Wide Web we choose what particular information we want. We have to go looking for it rather that it finds us. They both fulfill their separate purpose. People will always want and need for passive entertainment. No one can stay wired, switched on and on-the-ball all day and night. Or can they?

About the Author
Sasha Masand the founder of Indian Voice Overs is an award winning Television Producer who has been part of the Indian media industry for over twelve years.

Source: www.goarticles.com

Web 2.0 concept

Web 2.0 concept by Alex Smith

Many companies claim that they are "Web 2.0". But do you know what it really means? Web 2.0 is a brand new concept that sets up certain principles. This article is not aimed at thorough description of the Web 2.0. The purpose is just to show the principles which may be interesting for users, to show why it's worth using resources sticking to the Web 2.0 concept The one which really deserves our mentioning is user positioning. Now the user is concerned as a co-developer, he can control his own data and even influence the site itself. For example, site announces some new feature and asks for a feedback from its users. If they like it, the feature is developed and expanded to the site, if not - it's immediately removed. A lot of internet resources have some kind of database. Some spent a lot of time and money on making researches, analyzing and syndicating of data. Others, who clearly understand the advantages of the Web 2.0 concept, encourage user contribution of data. The more users take part in this the better the service becomes. The better the service becomes the more new users join in. And as long as this process is alive, both users and owners of the resources get benefit. Users are given the ability to review, explore and change the data. It helps to maintain the data and achieve the greatest results. This concept is now used by some file-hosting sites. Users upload their files to the site, post comments and descriptions. Some sites offer catalogues of files with users' comments and reviews. Moreover, tags can be added to the file, so that it could be easier found. Tagging (choosing keywords) allows some kind of associations that the brain itself uses, instead of strict categories. And as a result, it provides better search results. So again it is a collaborative work of users and site owners that makes the quantity and quality of files up to the mark. Now file-hosting sites become not only the hosting place for files but also the place for enrichment of user experience. Comments help to avoid troubles or show how some bugs can be fixed. As Tim O'Reilly says, "The competitive opportunity for new entrants is to fully embrace the potential of Web 2.0. Companies that succeed will create applications that learn from their users, using an architecture of participation to build a commanding advantage not just in the software interface, but in the richness of the shared data." Today more and more companies stick to the Web 2.0 concept and examples of these successful stories can be found on the Web.

Resource box Everyone may take advantages of our free service at www.oxyshare.com, that includes unlimited disk space, an endless amount of file downloads and e-mail file delivery. Free registration also gives access to upload files using your favorite FTP client and opportunity to edit or delete files. Using our partnership program registered users may earn money for their files downloads. Uploaded files are accessible for 30 days if there was no request to download. Go to www.oxyshare.com

About the Author
Alex Smith, Pr Officer for http://www.oxyshare.com You may contact me anytime via e-mail pr-manager@oxyserver.com.

Source: www.goarticles.com

Web 2.0, Build On It

Web 2.0, Build On It by Joseph Pratt

In 1999, ICMediaDirect.com opened up shop as an online advertising agency, and we viewed our chosen milieu, the Internet, as a limitless possibility - there was no talk of bubbles, no clouds on the horizon. In fact, conversations in the business tended to include terms like venture capital or IPO and it didn't matter who was talking. We knew who scored what and when. Like weekend golfers talking about the Masters, we dreamed of being the next eBay. Guys like me with, well, ordinary websites talked turkey, big turkey. And why wouldn't we? Those were halcyon times then.

And they're back - except, ahem, this time it's different. I hope. Nah, I'm sure of it.
Y2K was distinctly a time of fortuitous updraft; we were swept up in a tide of optimism. This Internet thing seemed like it was going to last forever. The early 90's brought us a proliferation of interconnected tech advances that gave rise to a new medium of business.

Personal computing had become universally available and affordable. Rapid advancements in the digital media field, improvements in size and scope of network infrastructures, and the rise of giant Internet companies for connection and service created an Internet we still recognize today. Deals went down, geeks got rich (or richer), and about the magic in this Internet - we believed.

There was a problem, though - promise and wonder alone cannot fill out a bottom line. Economic reality called in its chips and publicly traded stocks, the most successful of the start-ups who'd already actually "made it", with their valuations 100, 200, 300 times earnings came tumbling down. So, that money, which had raced too far ahead of ideas and their implementations, retreated. And when the markets soured, so too did sentiment.

Money, as it's wont to do, overtook dreams; it had run right past the sensible bounds of ideas. Soaring stock prices and gaudy deals in unproven fields had created a nasty bubble. It was the Web 1.0 bubble, but at the time I thought it was a buying opportunity.

It was March 2000 when the tech market started tanking. Actual technology however, never retreated, even though the casual observer might have thought engineers went to find new careers. Okay, some did, but still, science did not retreat. So, as the money dried up, Internet capability continued to grow.

And it grew rather quietly until the shape of a Web 2.0 was recognized. Like the Internet itself, Web 2.0 did not start with the flip of a switch, but instead it materialized with the gradual confluence of profitable web ventures, added Internet usability, and mass availability to high-speed connection. I am not uncomfortable crowning Google king, or at least the most emblematic of Web 2.0 examples. In fact, while the dot-com bust was at its most bleak, the boom times of Google were just getting started.

More importantly, Google and their successful IPO mark a new age of profitability for Internet advertising. Sure, people may talk bubble, but they'd be talking about GOOG being overpriced, and not a leaky boat in a storm. Google is profitable. Yahoo is profitable. Microsoft's AdCenter is coming. Ask.com might be on the rise. These are big companies vying for share in a profitable Internet arena.

Compare this with the original Internet boom, there was certainly competition, sizable big money competition - but over unproven business models that were ultimately unprofitable. It's different now.

Web 2.0 is just getting started. There is a focus on making the Internet a platform for end users. Paying bills online is no longer a novelty. Shopping for clothes and books online is commonplace. Mobile music playing components are built around the compatibility of downloading music off the Internet and not store bought units. MySpace is an interactive pen-pal phenomenon far beyond anything we'd have predicted only two years ago. Even Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phoning is saving phone customers money.

These are the old dreams that went up in smoke five and six years ago. We're just getting started.

About the Author
Joseph Pratt Media Analyst ICMediaDirect.com http://www.icmediadirect.com e: joseph@icmediadirect.com

Source: www.goarticles.com

The One Man Show and Web 2.0 - CommunityTraveler Launches New Website that Reforms the Travel Information Industry

The One Man Show and Web 2.0 - CommunityTraveler Launches New Website that Reforms the Travel Information Industry by Vince

Mission, KS. - April 28, 2006 - CommunityTraveler is a free independent travel community powered by the community for the community. Passionate independent travelers share their real world travel experiences, advice, tips and stories through their own travel blogs and guides on CommunityTraveler, enabling the community to become smarter and be more informed travelers. Unlike other travel sites, CommunityTraveler was not formed by a large corporation - so the site is not constrained to meeting monthly profit margins and thereby doesn't have to force products on the end user. Instead, the site is developed by a one man show, Vincent Carney.

"During many of my travel excursions I often meet fellow independent travelers like myself, with which I have much to discuss and share regarding my personal travel experiences. Better yet, I often will walk away with another good friend and many new ideas and insights on where and what to see during my lifetime. This is why I have created CommunityTraveler," said Vince, Founder and Lead CommunityTraveler Activist.

By leveraging blogging and social networking, CommunityTraveler provides unparalleled travel information that becomes more informative, personal and enjoyable. Finding new adventures one may never even thought of or known is possible with just a click of your mouse. Visit us at: http://www.communitytraveler.com.

About the Author
Vincent Carney CommunityTraveler.com info [at] communitytraveler.com 913.231.6010 http://www.communitytraveler.com

Source: www.goarticles.com

Through The Looking Glass Of Web 2.0

Through The Looking Glass Of Web 2.0 by Stephan Miller

Until I tried it, the whole 2.0 thing seemed like a joke to me. But the switch between the Google, Yahoo, MSN search engine Web 1.0 war and the environment of Web 2.0 is drastic.

For those of you who remember using a card catalog at the public library, the change is similar to the one you experienced using a computer to find a book for the first time. No endless cabinets of cards to hunt through. No misplaced cards that meant you wouldn't find the book you were looking for that day. Every book in the library accessible from one keyboard.

In 2.0, knowledge is fast. It moves at the speed of the keyboard and web form. A story from New York hits the West Coast in the time it takes a web page to refresh. And when a network build on speed puts a premium on those sites and bloggers that can get information first, news hits even the gardening forums before it even reaches the cable news networks.

This is drastic transition in the evolution of the speed of knowledge. With the invention of the printing press by Johann Guttenberg in 1440, the rate at which knowledge spread become quicker. Word of mouth was no longer the only way to receive news. Afterwards came mail, newspapers, television, and 24 hour cable news. Each a leap forward from the past form of media.

Then came the internet. Within a few short years, knowledge was accessible from everywhere with a few clicks of the mouse. We can now store more information on our hard drives than we can find at the local library.

Now, with web 2.0, the filter and wait time of search engines is taken out. Some might say that this cuts down on accuracy, but with time, I think it will improve accuracy. Search engines try to guesstimate what searchers want by applying an algorithm to what they type in the form. With the new animal, people are the algorithms.

When I started building my library of musical tastes, I usually discovered new music through people that listened to the same type of music I listened to. If we both listened to Pink Floyd than I might take the chance and listen to some other music they suggested to me. This is a much more effective way to find new information than with an algorithm. Let people be your algorithm. Let links be distributed through the lateral route of tastes, themes, and interests rather than the direct route of search engines that require a user to know almost exactly what they want to find before they search.

There is also a time element involved. Some search engine results are just old. They aren't what you are looking for. Some engines literally make sure links are aged before they are given the status they deserve.

In 2.0, a hour is a long time and a month is a lifetime. When searching through tagged sites or feeds, a site may gain 100 links to it in an hour by taggers. A traditional search engine can't keep up with this. This type of link growth would have to be run through filters to check for spam or other tactics to artificially increase it's rank. And still, the baby gets thrown out with the bath water a multitude of times.

Traditional search engines base all of their ranking systems on the votes of people who know how to build websites or at least post to forums. This is not very balanced. Sitting at the computer screen, you can assume all you want, but step out in the real world and just try to talk to anyone about HTML. Then you realize these are unheard internet votes.

Tagging and other web 2.0 technologies have brought a little more balanced to the system, giving those, whose tech savvy stops at bidding on Ebay, the internet right to vote. And when I finally got the chance to check it out by spending the last few weeks in the stream of web 2.0, I realized my whole vision was a little short sided. Sitting in box, typing code all day can skew your version of the world. Judging the needs of an internet audience by the whims of an algorithmic internet program can skew this vision even more.

Web 1.0 is Plato's cave, only shadows of the true internet traffic flow. As Web 2.0 technologies become more mainstream, the traditional search engine will have to adapt to a more democratic union between "internet land owners" and those who only surf but probably make up a greater part of internet users.

About the Author
Stephan Miller is a freelance web designer and internet marketer Marketing and SEO Blog

Source: www.goarticles.com

Blog your way to Web 2.0

Blog your way to Web 2.0 by Arun Tibrewal

If you've been surfing the web for the past year or five, you've undoubtedly heard of "blogs" or
weblogs. So what are these?

Blog is an instant publishing tool. Blog is freedom of expression. Blogs are fresh and somewhat categorised as beginner's journalism. Blog is by real life people who face the real problems and intern express their anger, joy, sorrow, light moments etc, and not experts in journalism. Blogs can be used as:-

- Universities for students.
- Companies for knowledge management.
- News source other then regular media.
- Business blogs to communicate with clients and display new products.
- A form of resume.
- Chit chat.
- Personal blogs.

Blogs are frequently updated and written in a personal tone, a blog is a diary or journal where the writer or "blogger" will write her observations on the world or provide links to useful websites. Different bloggers write about different themes, sort of like a newspaper columnist but with no specialized training necessary.

The first blog is said also to have been the first website in 1992. Blogs didn't really start to take off until the late nineties, however, and they gained in popularity after 2000. Early blogs were mostly lists of recommended links with some commentary. Since then, they've evolved to something different. Now anyone who fancies himself a writer, and even some people who don't, have a blog on the Internet.

Thanks to easy-to-use programs and websites, the most technically challenged person can get a blog online. This isn't a bad thing, as there's something out there for everyone.
Blogs can be a great platform for the companies to launch and test products and services. It is also a very good and free way of advertising. It appears that blogging is here to stay.

If you've considered a blog, you'll be happy to learn that many services make creating your own blog as easy as typing and clicking. Why not start your own blog? And what could be a better place then www.freshcontents.com and www.indiaproactive.com :)

About the Author
Arun Tibrewal is an online marketing expert with 14 years of experience. Presently he is the CEO of an outsourcing company at www.kpoweb.com. More articles of him can be find at his Free online marketing guide here.

Source: www.goarticles.com

Improve Your Life And Business With Web 2.0

Improve Your Life And Business With Web 2.0 by Thiago Leite

The web is changing faster than ever, thanks to the Web 2.0 movement which includes Ruby on Rails, Ajax, sleek design and "hover links with colorful background". Are you up to the task of keeping up with it? In this article you will discover how to use some of those technologies to improve you life and business, starting at no cost.

At the moment there are several excellent Web 2.0 applications loosed on the web, but usually they lack several features in order to compete with the big guys. Fortunately with the power of APIs, soon some of those applications will combine into a more robust solution.

+ Work Area
Protopage --------- Suggestion: Not enough widget applications, no JS support.
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Does your monitor look like a sunflower at a distance from all the yellow sticky notes? Why not throw it all into the web? By doing so, you will be able to share it with co-workers and friends and access it from different locations. There're several solutions out there, but the one that excels in usability is ProtoPage. The edge from this London based company is the ability to drag your panels without being constrained into a grid and to resize its panels. Also, you are able to create several "desktops". One could be for your personal life, the other one for business, etc. The service is great, but it needs more widgets other than just the Weather one.
Since you are not allowed to add a JS script into the panel, use the "Iframe tag" with the "src=page_with_your_js.html". This will pull anything you want into your Protopage panel.

+ Sending Invoice
BlinkSale --------- Suggestion: The user cannot save the products and services to avoid typing again next time.

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Invoicing software is a aniche the creative and innovative power of the web did not touch for a long time. Consequently, small businesses were confined with proprietary software like QuickBooks, which is expensive and cluttered. BlinkSale is a very nice start to bring the financial industry into the Web 2.0 and hopefully shake things up a bit. The greatest thing about BlinkSale is to have your invoices in XML/RSS rather than a proprietary format. Although, at the moment, BlinkSale is not a replacement for QuickBooks yet due to lack of functions such having products and services list, reports and etc. BlinkSale is a basic invoicing solution for small companies, but this is just the beginning of a revolution in this area. Just wait until BlinkSale and Basecamp have their API out and well distributed. That would make several big corporations tremble, or to write fat checks to Fire Wheel.

+ Project Management
Basecamp --------- Suggestion: You cannot set the time for your meetings in the milestone and some drag & drop capabilities would be great.

Online collaboration can give you the edge over your competitors by allowing your customers to log in and see what is the project status, add a file or a "to-do" item. Basecamp can be use for a wide range of scenarios, from a Web Design company to a wedding planning ocassion, this is the service to use. You can set up different user to access different projects and so on. This is a great out-of-the-box solution for any ocasion, easy to use and open for collaboration.

+Calendar
Planzo --------- Suggestion: Design is a little cluttered and RSS feeds are not well tagged.
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One of the biggest headaches of the modern world is to sync your calendar. Most people have to struggle organizing themselves among Outlook at work and sticky notes at home. Planzo delivers a nice start towards solving that problem by delivering reminders via email and SMS and connection with iCal.

All of these new services are great and exciting, but be careful, sometimes in the attempt of organizing yourself, you'll end up with 20 different accounts in several services worsening your situation. One possible solution is to combine all services through RSS into a "work area" like ProtoPage. Then you can have the invoice list, your calendar, etc., delivered into one place.

About the Author
Thiago Leite is a freelance Web designer / Developer / Thinker ThiagoLeite.com

Source: www.goarticles.com

Oracle SOA Service-Oriented Architecture

Oracle SOA Service-Oriented Architecture

Build, Deploy, and Manage SOA with Best-of-Breed Oracle Technology
Leading companies are tackling the complexity of their application and IT environments with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), which facilitates the development of modular business services that can be easily integrated and reused—creating a truly flexible, adaptable IT infrastructure. With an SOA approach, your IT organization will focus more resources and budget on innovation and on delivering new business services.

SOA's BENEFITS

• Reduce development time and cost—SOA services are easily reused and can be rapidly assembled into new, composite applications
• Lower maintenance costs—Reusable services reduce the number and internal complexity of IT services
• Higher quality services—Increased service reuse creates higher-quality services through multiple testing cycles from different service consumers
• Lower integration costs—Standardized services know how to work together, enabling disparate applications to quickly and easily connect
• Reduce risk—Fewer, reusable services provide greater control over corporate and IT governance policies and reduce the overall compliance risk

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Glossary

IBM Service Oriented Architecture SOA Glossary

BPM - Business Process Management (BPM) is a discipline combining software capabilities and business expertise through people, systems, and information to accelerate time between process improvements, facilitating business innovation.

Composite Business Services - Composite business services are collections of individual business and IT services that work together, along with a client’s existing applications, to provide specific business solutions that support the industry and semantic standards common to each industry, such as HIPAA in Healthcare, ACORD in Insurance, and SWIFT in Banking.

Connectivity - SOA connectivity enables you to exchange information between all your assets within and outside of your business through a secure, reliable, and scaleable messaging backbone for seamless communication among applications, people, and information sources.

Dashboard - Dashboards use SOA to provide a single view into how your business is operating – unifying fragmented sources of information and applications for monitoring, analysis, decision making, and execution

Entry Points - SOA Entry Points are five distinct but interrelated ways of undertaking SOA projects that encompass both a business and an IT component. They are: People, Process, Information, Connectivity, and Reuse

ESB - An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is a flexible connectivity infrastructure for integrating applications and services by performing the following actions between services and requestors: ROUTING messages between services, CONVERTING transport protocols between requestor and service, TRANSFORMING message formats between requestor and service, and HANDLING business events from disparate sources.

Event - An event is a significant real world action or instance which does or does not occur in a specific period of time. Services respond to events in accordance with business rules.

Governance - SOA governance helps organizations meet their SOA goals and vision by establishing decision rights, measurement, policy and control mechanisms around the services lifecycle.

Information - Information as a service is an approach that unlocks information in all its forms from its repository, process, and application silos, providing it as a trusted service to the applications, processes and decision makers who need it.

Management - SOA Management helps Deploy, Monitor, Secure, Control and Enable business processes, SOA_based services and composite applications, and the supporting IT environment.
People - People can interact with SOA-based business services and composite applications through an enabling framework of tools, and practices.

Process - A process is a set of related business tasks spanning people, systems, and information to produce a specific service or product. The process entry point provides specific tools and services to help streamline and improve processes across the enterprise. The Process entry point provides the foundation for IBM's business process management with SOA.

Registry & Repository - A central reference point within a service oriented architect that stores and manages services information (metadata). It stores information about what the services are, how they are used, and how they are interconnected with other components. This information can be used to foster reuse of services assets and to govern services throughout the lifecycle.

Reuse - Reuse addresses methods of creating the services needed to execute business tasks by service-enabling existing IT assets, consuming reusable services from an external service provider, and creating net-new reusable services from scratch.

SCA - SCA provides an open, technology-neutral model for implementing IT services that are defined in terms of a business function and make middleware functions more accessible to the application developer. SCA also provides a model for the assembly of business solutions from collections of individual services, with control over aspects of the solution such as access methods and security. Vendors working to create SCA include BEA Systems, IBM, IONA, Oracle, SAP, Siebel, and Sybase.

SDO - SDO complements SCA by providing a common way to access many different kinds of data. The specification reduces the skill levels and time required to access and manipulate business data. Today, a multitude of APIs are used to manipulate data. These APIs tend to tightly couple the source and target of the data making their use error-prone and subject to breaking as business requirements evolve. SDO makes it easier to use and realize the value of these APIs without having to code directly to them. Vendors working to create SDO include BEA Systems, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Siebel, Sybase, and Xcalia.

Security - SOA Security helps create a consistent infrastructure to support SOA projects by enableing user-centric, policy driven authentication, authorization and access to applicaitons, information and data, and consistent enforcement and auditing of corporate compliance and security policy.

Service - Services are self-contained, reusable software modules that are independent of applications and the computing platforms on which they run. Services have with well-defined interfaces and allow a 1:1 mapping between business tasks and the exact IT components needed to execute the task.

Service orientation - A way of thinking about your business processes as linked, loosely coupled tasks supported by services.

SOA - Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services. SOA helps today’s businesses innovate by ensuring that IT systems can adapt quickly, easily and economically to support rapidly changing business needs. SOA helps customers increase the flexibility of their business processes, strengthen their underlying IT infrastructure and reuse their existing IT investments by creating connections among disparate applications and information sources.

SOA foundation - Integrated, open-standard-based set of software, best practices and patterns that is designed to provide what you need to get started with your SOA.

SOA infrastructure - As clients adopt SOA this new simplified, virtualized and distributed application frameworks pose challenges for infrastructures that must be addressed. To ensure the new applications can meet their performance, availability, scalability, security and management requirements, the infrastructure needs to be assessed and transformed to support SOA.

SOA infrastructure solution - The SOA infrastructure solution from IBM is designed to help you increase business flexibility, responsiveness and performance by enabling your IT infrastructure for SOA. We start by leveraging your existing IT assets, then evaluate, design and implement the enhancements needed to establish a more flexible and robust infrastructure.

SOA lifecycle - The SOA Lifecycle defines a methodology for conducting successful SOA projects by modeling the business process and the services that will support them, assembling the services into a composite application, deploying the services in a robust, scaleable environment, managing and monitoring key IT resources and business metrics, and doing all of these lifecycle steps while adhering to solid governance and best practices.

SOA Reference Archictecture - SOA Reference Architecture defines the comprehensive IT services required to support your SOA at each stage in the SOA life cycle.

SOA Scenarios - SOA Scenarios define specific SOA projects customers can implement while focusing on a very small number of targeted software products and/or services per project.