Glossary of Web 2.0 terms
Thursday August 07th, 2008From Library Instruction Wiki
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Glossary
As I was working on this project, I kept coming across all this different "Web 2.0" jargon, and I thought it might be helpful to collect some of it here and give some definitions. Feel free to add your take on something - a lot of 2.0 stuff is still being defined, and any input would be appreciated!
Avatar: graphic representation of a person online. Can be an icon or photo, but it seems to be mainly used for cartoon/computer animated persons. You can create an avatar for yourself at various places online, like http://avatars.yahoo.com (if you don't have a yahoo account, you'll have to sign up for one.) Some people try to make their avatars look like themselves, and others go for idealized/stylized visions.
Social Networking: Broad term for a many-to-many approach to online interactions. In the past, communication tended to be a series of one-way presentations. Social networking makes for greater collaborative work online. In social networking, users can have an effect on their online environment, shaping it to fit their needs and sharing their ideas with others.
Social Tagging: When you "tag" something, you ascribe keywords to it to help you find it again. If you're in flickr and you've uploaded a photo, you can tag it with some keywords. Later, you can search through your tags to find that photo and others that have been given the same tag. Because flickr is a social network, other flickr users can find your photo by its tag. So, if you go to Tillamook and take some pictures of your trip, and tag those pictures with the word "Tillamook, beach, Oregoncoast, etc." then people searching for pictures about "Tillamook" will get your photos as part of their search results.
Social Bookmarking: You can bookmark sites on your browser, or put them in your favorites. To share these sites with others, you have to find them in your browser and then send them to people via email or another means. Social Bookmarking allows you to put your bookmarks online. You get an account with a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us, upload your bookmarks, and tag them (see "Social tagging") with keywords. You can only fit so many folders on your browser before it gets too cluttered, so you're always having to choose what you really want to add to them or not. Online, with tagging, things don't get as cluttered, plus you already have everything in a public place where it's easy to share it with others.
Blog: short for "Weblog." I don't know if I've ever actually heard anyone say the word "Weblog" out loud, except to say that "Blog" is short for it. A blog is basically a place online where you can easily put words or photos without having to ftp them. You type into a box, and publish it immediately to the web at a stable URL. Other people can find your blog by that URL. Each individual "post" usually has it's own URL also, if you want to link to it. More than one person can post to the same blog. Early incarnations of blogs were more like journals - people wrote down their thoughts, ideas, and actions. However, a lot of people use blogs to quickly inform others of events and occurrences in whatever circle they are involved with. There are a lot of library related blogs out there, for example. You can comment on other people's blog posts, and they can comment on yours.
Blogger: One who blogs, or, a major blogging program owned by Google.
Blogging: The act of posting stuff to your blog.
Biblioblogosphere: Hmmm. Maybe the network of bloggers our there? Or is that just the "blogosphere?" 'Biblio' means book, so maybe it's referring to library oriented blogging. Anyone?
Podcasting: Like blogging, but with audio clips. You record yourself talking, or an interview or a reading of a book, and put it in a place where others can access the sound file.
Screencasting: You can make a video of your screen activity (for example, to show people in real time where to click, what to type, etc.) and post it for others to use.
Vlogging: Video blogging.
Some more computer and internet related terms can be found at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Glossary.html
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