Version numbers
After the appearance of the term “Web 2.0”, a nomenclature appeared to describe the present, the past and the future of the Web. The uses presented here are not necessarily the only ones. In addition, for certain numbers uses are very rare (e.g. Web 2.1).
Numbers of existing versions:
- Web 0.0 (Already deployed): Ironic term for the development phase preceding the actual existence of the Web, the fact that some people do not have internet or an effect of an announcement without any content.
- Web 0.5: Pleasant term for a website using outdated methods, or internet services deployed without beaing really ready (especially Web mobile telephony).
- Web 1.0: Static Web
- Web 1.5: Dynamic Web
- Web 2.0: Participatory web, social and collective intelligence. Concept proposed by Tim O’Reilly in 2005.
- Web 2.1: Web 2.0 made it easier to access; expression is mostly a reflection on improvements of Web 2.0 in the near future.
- Web 2.5: For some, it means the Web turned into a platform for online applications. Also used by the Criteo company for its filtering method of content (Web 2.0 being seen as the contribution of content without discrimination of participants).
- Web 2.B: Web 2.0 oriented to trade; see also business 2.0 and marketing 2.0
- Web² (Squared – ongoing): The web as an information ecosystem. Concept proposed by Tim O’Reilly (and John Battelle) as an intermediate stage between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. The choice of “²” (square) means that the web development must be seen as a constant acceleration, not a linear phenomenon.
- Web 3.0: Term for the next major evolution of the Web. Expected as the Semantic Web or Web data; others think it will be the Web3D. Finally in 2011 Web.3.0 also means the P2P Web from one computer to another without server).
- Web3D: 3D websites; supported by the Web3D Consortium
- Web 4.0: For Nova Spivack, owner of Radar Networks, it means the ability to work with tools online only. For Joël de Rosnay and Seth Godin, it means the symbiotic web used continuously; without challenging the relevance of this definition, Olivier Ertzscheid think that Web 4.0 will precede Web 3.0.
Bloggers humorously published articles on what would be Web n.0 or use it as the site name, or simply to mock ads about improvements from one version to the other quite identical. A start-up announced in a press release a parody on his “discovery” of Web 5.0. The organizers of a conference on Web 3.0 in April 2007 noted that in search engines were at that time many answers even for the term “Web 9.0”.
Nicholas Carr imagined for its part the evolution of Web 1.0 to Web 5.0 by making the progression towards a world-against technological utopia.
In a drawing satirizing Web 2.0, François showed Google suggesting Web ∞.0 (of course the “.0” is not used with the symbol of infinity); on the same drawing, a pipe bore the inscription “Web 2.0”, and he went a bubble 2.0.
Symmetrically, below 1 there are numbers used to discuss the development of the Web. Thus in the MIT thesis, the term “Web 0.2” is used to designate the first sites, and “Web .9” for dating sites just before the onset of the digital economy.
Using 2.0
The use of the “.0” was widely used by allusion. In particular, there is the suffix “2.0” attached to any XXX concept. In most cases, the concept XXX 2.0 does not necessarily mean a “major update” (the greatest transformation since its creation, since it get the number 2) of XXX concept, but use of web 2.0 as part of the XXX concept. A non-exhaustive list of expressions emerged for acceptance include:
- Administration 2.0
- Bank 2.0
- Business 2.0
- Economy 2.0
- Enterprise 2.0 (Knowledge Management 2.0)
- Government 2.0
- HR 2.0
- Learning 2.0
- Marketing 2.0
- Medicine 2.0
- Media 2.0
- Organization 2.0
- Forum 2.0
- Violence 2.0
- Evil 2.0
- Injustice 2.0
- Pamphlet 2.0
But there are also uses that have nothing to do with Web 2.0 itself, and just use the fashionable terminology. A distant example of the original domain is the use of “Depression 2.0” on the cover of Time to discuss the 2008 financial crisis.
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