Web 2.0 Architectures

The Post That Led to This Book

Back in 2006, Tim O’Reilly posted the following on his blog (http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/10/web_20_compact_definition.html):

I said I’m not fond of definitions, but I woke up this morning with the start of one in my head:

Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an “architecture of participation,” and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.

This seemed to us the most meaningful definition that Tim had offered to date, but it still stops short of fully defining Web 2.0, and it remains broad enough to support many interpretations. It also creates a path for follow-up work—specifically the development of design patterns and models that illustrate the abstract concepts behind Web 2.0.