Web 2.0 - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Book review: We all Digg but who gets Web 2.0 gold?

  Web 2.0 has become something of a cliché, but it’s recognised that there are significant new ways of using the web. The authors of Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, attempt to outline the essentials of this change in their book. But, they see these changes as not only being to do with the web, but with society and interpersonal relationships as well. These have both influenced Web 2.0 and been influenced by it, too.

• SAP CRM goes Web 2.0

  SAP has unveiled upgrades to its SAP CRM 2007 software that add support for Web 2.0 applications.

• SAP unveils Web 2.0 look for its CRM tool

  SAP, looking to reduce the complexity of its customer relationship management software, last week unveiled an up­grade that adds support for Web 2.0-style user interfaces.

• Local organisations decide it’s website 2.0 time

  Local organisations are realising the state-of-the-art websites they developed in 1990s simply don’t cut it any more — it’s time for a web makeover.

• IT warned of harsher economic times ahead

  IT leaders need to prepare for changed business priorities as the economic climate is going to get harsher, the head of Gartner's global research, Peter Sondergaard, has warned.

• Web collaboration, Reverse 911 used in wildfire battle

  The massive wildfires burning in and around San Diego are testing technologies that the city recently deployed for managing disasters, including a web-based system for coordinating emergency-response operations and a Reverse 911 system for alerting residents.

• Microsoft releases beta of mashup tool

  Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer announced the public beta availability of Popfly, the company's mashup creation tool for non-technical users introduced in alpha form in May.

• Opinion: In praise of ‘gingerbread-free’ Web 0.2

  Usenet’s problems continue, with TelstraClear’s two ISPs, Paradise and ClearNet, once again having difficulty delivering the news and discussion service.

• Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies for 2008

  Which technologies must any good IT executive examine in 2008? The list includes green power, unified communications, virtualization, mashups and social software.
  Gartner has identified the “Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2008”, and is urging IT executives to think about the risk of not implementing each one. If your competitor masters one of these technologies and you don't, will you be at a strategic disadvantage?

• Web 2.0 and flexibility key to hiring GenYers

  In mid-May, Hewlett-Packard participated in a virtual job fair using Second Life tools from Linden Lab. HP had been invited by one of its external recruiters, TMP. During the virtual event, recruiters and job applicants alike created avatars, or personas to represent themselves in the virtual world.

• IT identified as barrier to corporate Web 2.0 uptake

  Most speakers at the recent Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco agreed that Web 2.0 will make its way into the enterprise, propelled by user demand for tools that can make them more productive.

• Web 2.0 needs Adobe to 'do the driving'

  It’s thrilling to imagine rich, responsive, attractive client applications that run identically on desktops, notebooks, and mobile devices, as well as over remote connections. Java promised us that. Then .Net. Neither really came through with the kind of transparency and interoperability that Sun and Microsoft had led us to expect. Now, it looks like we’ve given up on commercial interests closing the application portability gap. Web 2.0 is touted as the way of applications to come, and on the face of it, it’s all about standards. We don’t have to wait for Microsoft, Sun, Symbian, or anyone to do next-generation software for us. All we need is a browser. We’ll do it ourselves.

• BEA ships three Web 2.0 products in new package

  BEA Systems has released a trio of products in a suite geared for Web 2.0.

• Alfresco rolls Web 2.0 features into latest upgrade

  Alfresco Software is taking cues from the so-called Web 2.0 craze with the release of the latest version of its open-source content management software (CMS).

• EMC development chief sets out innovation roadmap

  A completely new kind of approach to innovation is required to ensure EMC doesn’t lose its way as storage needs grow and change due to companies adopting Web 2.0 applications, service-oriented architectures and software-as-a-service offerings.