《Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices》

What is Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a set of social, economic, and technology trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the Internet—a more mature, distinct medium characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects.

Market Drivers of Web 2.0

 

Diverse demographic, technological, and economic changes are driving Web 2.0.Underlying them is people’s fundamental desire to connect, communicate, and participate—motivations that the Internet continues to facilitate in previously unimaginable ways not previously imagined.

 

Your customer base is truly global

Your customers are always-on

Your customers are connected everywhere they go

Your customers aren’t just connected, they’re engaged

Your costs of production have dramatically decreased

You have new revenue opportunities

 

 

 

The most successful Web 2.0 products and companies are capitalizing on:

 

l         New business models facilitated by changes in infrastructure costs, the reach of the Long Tail, viral network-driven marketing, and new advertising-based revenue opportunities.

l         New social models in which user-generated content can be as valuable as traditional media, where social networks form and grow with tremendous speed, where truly global audiences can be reached more easily, and rich media from photos to videos is a part of everyday life online.

l         New technology models in which software becomes a service; the Internet becomes the development platform, where online services and data are mixed and matched; syndication of content becomes glue across the network; and high-speed, ubiquitous access is the norm.

 

 

 

Common Web 2.0 attributes:

 

l         Massively connected. Network effects move us from the one-to-many

publishing and communication models of the past into a true web of manyto-

many connections. In this era, the edges become as important as the core,

and old modes of communication, publishing, distribution, and aggregation

become disrupted.

l         Decentralized. Connectedness also disrupts traditional control and power

structures, leading to much greater decentralization. Bottom-up now competes

with top-down in everything from global information flow to marketing

to new product design. Adoption occurs via pull not push. Systems often

grow from the edges in, not from the core out.

l         User focused. The user is at the center of Web 2.0. Network effects give

users unprecedented power for participation, conversation, collaboration,

and, ultimately, impact. Consumers have become publishers with greater

control, experiences are tailored on the fly for each user, rich interfaces optimize

user interactions, users actively shape product direction, and consumers

reward companies that treat them well with loyalty and valuable word-of-mouth

marketing.

l         Open. In Web 2.0, openness begins with the foundation of the Internet’s open technology standards and rapidly grows into an open ecosystem of loosely coupled applications built on open data, open APIs, and reusable components. And open means more than technology—it means greater transparency in corporate communications, shared intellectual property, and greater visibility into how products are developed.

l         Lightweight. A “less is more, keep it simple” philosophy permeates Web 2.0: software is designed and built by small teams using agile methods; technology solutions build on simple data formats and protocols; software becomes simple to deploy with light footprint services built on open source software; business focuses on keeping investment and costs low; and marketing uses simple consumer-to-consumer viral techniques.

l         Emergent. Rather than relying on fully predefined application structures,

Web 2.0 structures and behaviors are allowed to emerge over time. A flexible, adaptive strategy permits appropriate solutions to evolve in response to realworld usage; success comes from cooperation, not control.

 

 

The Eight Core Patterns

 

Harnessing Collective Intelligence

Data Is the Next “Intel Inside”

Innovation in Assembly

Rich User Experiences

Software Above the Level of a Single Device

Perpetual Beta

Leveraging the Long Tail

Lightweight Models and Cost-Effective Scalability

 

 

 

Harnessing Collective Intelligence

 

The key to competitive advantage in Internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to what you provide. Therefore, harness collective intelligence by creating an architecture of participation that involves your users both implicitly and explicitly in adding value to your application.

 

Two key principles: Users add value; Network effects magnify this value.

 

Benefits:

Opens opportunities for rapid, large-scale, user-driven growth

Builds customer trust and loyalty

Improves products as user base grows

 

Best Practices:

Pay the user first.

Set network effects by default.

Involve users explicitly and implicitly.

Provide a meaningful context for creation.

Trust your users.

Design software so that it improves as more people use it.

Facilitate emergence.

 

 

 

Data Is the Next “Intel Inside”

 

For Internet applications, success often comes from data, not just function. Examples range from Google’s search database to Amazon.com’s product catalog to eBay’s auction data and YouTube’s video library. Therefore, for competitive advantage, establish a data strategy not just a product strategy.

 

Approaches to maximize strategic value from data:

Creation strategies, such as owning expensive, hard-to-recreate data, or

building data from network effects

Control strategies leverage custom file formats or data access mechanisms

like registries and directories

Framework strategies focus on classes of data to provide the framework to a

wide range of other services, such as location, identity, time, and catalogs

Access strategies provide access to formerly difficult to find data

Data infrastructure strategies provide infrastructure for storing and accessing others’ data

 

Benefits:

Maximization of data as a strategic asset

New data-centric business models

Greater customer loyalty and buy-in via their own data creation

Data reuse leads to broader market reach

Value creation possible at multiple data layers

 

Best Practices:

Seek to own a unique, hard to recreate source of data.

Enhance the core data.

Users control their own data.

Make some rights reserved, not all.

Define a data stack strategy.

Own the index, namespace, or format.

Design data for reuse.

Outsource or supply data access management.

 

 

 

Innovation in Assembly

 

A platform beats an application nearly every time. Not only is the Web itself becoming a platform to replace desktop operating systems, individual web sites are becoming platforms and platform components as well. Therefore, consider a platform strategy in addition to an application strategy.

 

Benefit:

Platforms provide a scalable growth model

APIs foster third-party innovation

Open platforms build trust and community

Customers show you how services are really used

Revenue models can be directly tied to platform

 

Best Practices:

Offer APIs to your service.

Design for remixability.

Apply API best practices.

Use existing standards.

Build your business model into your API.

Use Web 2.0 to support your platform.

Be your own platform customer.

Granular addressability of content.

Use your platform to build customer trust and loyalty.

Learn from how your customers remix.

 

 

Rich User Experiences

 

The static web page is giving way to a new generation of rich Internet applications that have the ability to combine many of the best elements of the desktop and online user experiences. Therefore, create a richer, more compelling experience to engage users and transition them from a desktop-interface model to an online model.

 

Benefits:

Competitive advantages

Higher user satisfaction rates

Lower web site abandonment and higher sales conversion rates

Reduced IT infrastructure and support costs

Improved performance

 

Best Practices:

Combine the best of desktop and online experiences.

Usability and simplicity first.

Match the usage to the requirements.

Search over structure.

Preserve content addressability.

Deep, adaptive personalization.

 

 

 

Software Above the Level of a Single Device

 

The PC is no longer the only access device for Internet applications, and applications that are limited to a single device are less valuable than those that are connected. Therefore, design your application from the start to integrate data and services across desktops, mobile devices, and Internet servers.

 

Benefits:

Opens new markets

Access to your applications anywhere

Ability for location and context awareness

Entry into the new digital home

 

Best Practices and Examples

Design from the start to share data across devices, servers, and networks.

Think location-aware.

Extend Web 2.0 to devices.

Use the power of the network to make the edge smarter.

Leverage devices as data and rich media sources.

Make one-click peer-production a priority.

Enable data location independence.

 

 

 

Perpetual Beta

 

When devices and programs are connected to the Internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services. This has significant impact on the entire software development and delivery process. Therefore, don’t package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add features on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience. Engage your users to be real-time testers, and structure the service to reveal how people use your product.

 

Benefits:

Faster time to market

Reduced risk

Closer relationship with customers

Real-time data to make quantifiable decisions

Increased responsiveness

 

Best Practices:

Release early and release often.

Engage users as co-developers and real-time testers.

Instrument your product.

Incrementally create new products.

Make operations a core competency.

Use dynamic tools and languages.

 

 

 

Leveraging the Long Tail

 

Small sites make up the bulk of the Internet’s content; narrow niches make up the bulk of the Internet’s possible applications. Therefore, use the reach of the Internet to monetize markets previously too small to profitably capture. Reach out to the edges and not just the center; reach out to the Long Tail and not just the head.

 

Benefits:

Ability to target and capture new micro-markets

Content producers can reach a wider audience

Opportunity for increased consumer choice

 

Best Practices:

Build on the driving forces of the Long Tail.

Use algorithmic data management to match supply and demand.

Use an architecture of participation to match supply and demand.

Leverage customer self-service to cost effectively reach the entire web.

Leverage the low-cost advantages of being online.

 

 

 

Lightweight Models and Cost-Effective Scalability

 

Scalability in Web 2.0 applies to business models as well as technology. Changes in cost, reusability, process, and strategy mean much more can be done for much less. Therefore, adopt a scalable, cost-effective strategy encompassing business models, development models, and technology to deliver products to market faster and cheaper without sacrificing future growth.

 

Benefits:

Faster time to market

Faster ROI through reduced cost and time

Reduced risk of project and product failure

Greater adaptability

 

Best Practices:

Scale with demand.

Syndicate business models.

Outsource whenever practical and possible.

Provide outsourced infrastructure, function, and expertise.

Scale your pricing and revenue models.

Fail fast, scale fast.

Design for scale.