Web 2.0 revisited: user-generated content as a social innovation. (14th October 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pelka, Bastian; Kaletka, Christoph
• Is Part Of: International journal of innovation and sustainable development. Volume 5:Number 2/3(2011)
• Page Start: 264
• Page End: 275
• Publication Date: 2011-10-14
• Subjects: Web 20 -- social web -- social innovation -- user-generated content -- wikis -- blogs -- virtual communities -- online communities -- web based communities; Sustainable development -- Periodicals; Technological innovations -- Periodicals; 338.92705
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1740-8822

Abstract

This paper raises the question whether Web 2.0 can be seen as a technological or a social innovation and which interdependencies exist between these two innovative aspects of the phenomenon. For that purpose, the definition of Web 2.0 as a tag cloud (for example given in Wikipedia) or as a difference in comparison to a ?Web 1.0? is revisited, challenged and discarded. In following steps, the paper argues that the core innovation of Web 2.0 is the communication of ?user-generated content? as a new social routine. The main enabling factors for Web 2.0 utilisation as a social routine are identified as easy-to-use software and broadly spread internet access. So while technology is seen as a ?catalyst? of the phenomenon, the innovation itself (user-generated content) is considered a social one.