This is a group assignment done for Subject Semantic Web on the topic of "Web 2.0 for Business" Group Members - H.M.V.T.W Bandara , S.M.P.S Chamara , W.G.Y Lakmal

1. Web 2.0 for Business
Report Submission
PST 32230 Semantic Web
Department of Physical Sciences and Technology
Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

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Content
1. Introduction
2. Technologies and tools of web 2.0 in the business environment
2.1 Blogs
2.2 Wikis
2.3 RSS
2.4 Social Media Networks
2.5 Mashups
3. Impact of Web 2.0 for Business - Discussion
4. Conclusion
5. References
6. Group Members

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Web 2.0 for Business
1. Introduction
Concept of Web 2.0 can be referred to as a buzz word in the world of computing as it is still hard
to find a clear definition for it. When searched for “Web 2.0” in the internet it would return over
70 million hits. But still it is hard to find a well-defined explanation for it. Any way it can be called
as the new shift that has occurred with the web technologies incorporated with internet and network
communications. Over the past few years Web 2.0 has dominated the discourse surrounding the
WWW and networked information environment and applications in the real world. With its
promising ability of bringing a more powerful, more interactive and better user experience, web
2.0 seems to have revolutionized the way in which we interact with information resources. In the
process, it may even help bring about the long-heralded Semantic Web. But the enthusiasm
accompanying Web 2.0 comes at the tail end of a long line of similarly proclaimed watersheds in
the development of the web, and information applications that have failed to live up to the hype.
Furthermore, the collection of technologies and services bundled together under its heading do not
immediately seem to share too much in common.
Most of the recent propagation of the term derives from a widely influential article by the
information evangelist Tim O’Reilly. In a series of seminars, O’Reilly set out to define Web 2.0,
exploring the characteristics of information systems and information services business models that
appeared on face value to be changing the way in which users are interacting with information
resources. O’Reilly (2005) presented Web 2.0 as a second stage in the development of the web,
superseding the predominantly publishing model of many web-based information applications and
services. With it, information services are to become more dynamic, and more sensitive to user
action.
In the first place there are particular kinds of information and communications applications or
technologies, such as the wiki, the blog, and RSS, and peer-to-peer networks, mashups etc. These
applications generally put more power in the hands of users to select, filter, publish, and edit
information and participate in the creation of information resources. They also frequently involve
a de contextualization of information that is at least in part antipathetic to the traditional practices
of the information publishing industry.

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2. Technologies and tools of web 2.0 in the business environment
2.1 Blogs
The blog, or weblog, is perhaps the oldest of these applications. Blogs first appeared in the mid-
1990s as a simplified way of publishing to the web, obviating the need for dedicated web-
publishing software, and replacing it with a combination of web-forms for inputting information
and templates for displaying it. First used as online diaries, as blogs developed they increasingly
became utilized as a more general information tool. Two aspects of the blog are of particular
interest. Firstly, the greater ease of web publishing that they have introduced. The blog has been
heralded as a fundamentally democratic medium allowing almost everyone with only a little
technological savvy to participate in the discursive space of the Internet. The second is the
collection of tools that have grown up around the blog to make the blogging process easier. In
particular, tools to ‘blog’ web content – incorporate a summary of a particular webpage or article
automatically into a blog including a hyperlink back to the point of origin – have been important
to the way blogs have developed. This has meant that blogs have become not just a cheap and easy
way of publishing to the web; they have also become ways of aggregating web content for
particular ends. This aggregation involves the reuse of information, and the stripping out of much
of the design and navigation architecture that secures the original context of that information. This
is more than just republication; it is also a transformation of the original web publishing model
into a more participatory form.
2.2 Wikis
This emphasis on participation is even more evident in the wiki. Wikis, like the blog, are a
simplified means of publishing to the web that again dispense with the need for dedicated web-
publishing software. They rely on server-side processing to convert content into HTML, usually
on-the-fly. Unlike the blog, the wiki supports the creation of full-scale websites with its
combination of templates, authoring tools and audit trails. They therefore might be seen as an
alternative to commercial content-management systems.

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But the wiki is more than just a piece of software to support web development. The wiki takes the
ethos of the open-source software movement with its realization of the benefits of collaborative
software development, and applies it to information resource management and development. At
its heart, the wiki is a tool to enable collaborative authoring. That means that the power to edit and
update information is ceded to users. Wikis allow users to edit the pages that they browse. The
veracity of the information that results from the mediated collaboration of dozens or hundreds of
contributors depends upon the emergence of a degree of consensus through the interactions of
users. This might seem like a recipe for disaster; however public wikis such as Wikipedia have
demonstrated how this approach to creating and managing information resources can result in
credible and stable content.
2.3 RSS
Where participation is central to the wiki, de contextualization is central to RSS. RSS is a suite of
web-content syndication protocols, the most widespread of which is Really Simple Syndication.
RSS is a way of syndicating web content through the use of content feeds, which consist of XML
marked-up files. RSS feeds usually combine either the lead paragraph, or a summary of an article
published on the web or on a blog, and a hyperlink back to its source. Combined with the RSS
reader, or aggregator, RSS provides a means for users to keep track of updates posted across the
web. Central to RSS in combination with the RSS feed reader is the possibility of aggregating
content from many different websites into a single user-space. The kinds of clues that help us to
authenticate information, such as the corporate logos of news providers and information
aggregators, are largely stripped from the information as it is presented in the RSS feed reader.
News from many different sources is presented side-by-side as broadly equivalent. As a result,
more emphasis is placed on the user to evaluate the authority of information.
2.4 Social Media Networks
Social media networks are type of web 2.0 technologies which allow users to build personal web
spaces which are accessible to other users to share the personal content and communicate with one
another. Some of widely known social media networking tools which are prominent in the
promotion and development of businesses are Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Whatsapp, Twitter
etc. These websites allows user to create and customize their own personal account, users are

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interconnected from all over the world through one network. Users can find other users of similar
interest, their collogues, friends etc and add them to their account. Users can prominently create
new content on these websites related to their interest and can use them to promote an develop
their business work or business profiles. For an example these days, promoting anything can be
done easily by creating good content in Youtube.com. Also Facebook and Instagram marketing is
also a very much influential strategy for any type of business arena. With this type of a trend going
on with social media for the development of businesses still there are some drawbacks which can
affect to the effectiveness of businesses. That is with the increasing use of these social media tools,
it may cause harm for individuals and organization, these socials networks are used by a different
type of users which can result in making them controversial activities like hate campaigns targeting
groups ,and exploitation and stalking. In addition to all above there is always a doubt about the
true identity of the user. Therefore there is always a big responsibility with each and every
individual to use these tools and technologies for the betterment of lives of other people, animals
and the betterment of the planet.
2.5 Mashups
Mashups are actually hybrid version which is created by merging two or more web 2.0 applications
to create a new. It is one of the most potentially viable approaches of web 2.0 technologies. Now
days almost everything is being mashed up from blogs to social networking to news feed. Earlier
mash up was used by users for personal convenience or interest but now its commercial
implications are enormously increased, it gives the business/firm to syndicate their content all over
the websites, the integrations of other useful information into their own website is going to be
feasible as their content gets more significant.

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3. Impact of Web 2.0 for Business - Discussion
Some of the interactive web 2.0 applications such as blogs, wikis and virtual worlds and social
media networks have completely changes the way now users gather the information. Now the user
wants to contribute and edit the data as well. If we talk about the financial aspect of a business and
web 2.0 impacts on it, according to the article by (Heng, Stefan, Meyer, Thomas and Antje, 2007)
the financial services providers are realizing that they need to install the web 2.0 applications
successfully into their respective firms because eventually these technologies are going to
maximize their reach in their external and internal matters. . Some of these organizations have
deployed web 2.0 in form of internal wikis, internal blogs. Information feeds RSS etc. The reason
why these applications are having impact on financial industries is because web 2.0 applications
offers combination of competitive prices and affable community networks which can attracts many
consumers. Currently the financial service source is exposed scrutiny over the web which enhances
margins, transparency and reputational risks. Web 2.0 technologies like online p2p (person to
person) and pay systems inspire the competitive conventional banking. Some of the financial
organizations like even banks face new opportunities and threats regularly regarding the
competition from rivals or even their internal infrastructure like security and maintaining a
relationship with client to name a few. Furthermore research has showed that web 2.0 have faced
some obstacles in the financial sector of a business, some of the requirements of the customers and
their respective rigid authority do not always agree with the communications customs of the web
2.0. Wikis and blogs offers innovative way of two-way communication between the internal
processed of a financial institute, the employees of these financial institutes can easy access the
database which will eventually boost the institute’s information flow with interruption delays.
When we explore the marketing aspect of a business we can learn how greatly it impacted in this
sector of any business. Blogging, Vlogging, Social Media Posting ,Online Communities and wikis
are the most common applications of web 2.0 that the companies are using all over the world to
maximize their reach to their customers. One of the least utilized application virtual world played
huge role in marketing of a business, several companies foresee its advantages and have already
got onboard on the virtual online world, where millions of users are able to interact with each
other, share ideas, and discuss information. Companies use this virtual online world to sell,

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promote, advertise their products. All the companies are building a strategy using web 2.0
applications to be more competitive and prominent in the corporate world some of them are using
instant chats with their website to improve customer service and allow interaction within their
customers and expands its reach among them. Blogging has already created impact on consumers.
(Parise,Guinan and Weinberg 2011).
4. Conclusion
According to the specific research of facts we have discussed here in this report, there is no doubt
that Web 2.0 is a highly appreciated area in the modern business world. It was probable that web
2.0 technologies have created much more opportunities for business organizations, now it depends
on the organization how they deploy them to utilize it to maximum for their corporation. Since the
emergence of web 2.0, we have seen exhilarating technologies on, multimedia platform which
invites more creativity and interactivity. These technologies have helped building a better
connection and communication between the consumers, organization stock holders etc. With this
type of a trend ongoing in the field, still there are some issues we have to think about when
discussing about web 2.0 and its impact or business, web 2.0 technologies are now just set of useful
applications but actually it’s a powerful medium of internal and external interaction within an
corporation. The corporation can now successfully benefit from web 2.0 technologies as their
information sharing, problem solving, maintenance, marketing products is made easier and
effective. Web 2.0 has provided opportunities as well as challenges for organization. The
limitations of web 2.0 like security or corporate data for a business does play a factor, because the
corporations are to critical to their data being exposed to authorized access and information breach
from within the corporation. There needs to be more awareness of web 2.0 technologies and its
implications among the consumers and corporation

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References
Andriole, S. J. (2010). Business Impact of Web 2.0 Technologies. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220425294_Business_Impact_of_Web_20_Technolo
gies
Bruce D.Weinberg, Ekin Pehlivan. (2011). Social Spending: Managing the social media mix (Vol. 54).
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.008
CSR News. (2008). Retrieved from www.csrwire.com: https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/14732-
Marketwire-2008-Charity-Calendar-Continues-Its-Mission
Haya Ajjan, Richard Ha. (2008). Investigating Faculty Decisions to Adopt Web 2.0 Technologies: Theory
and empirical tests. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2008.05.002
Maged N Kamel Boulos, Steve Wheeler. (2007). The emerging web 2.0 social software: An enabling suite
of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Information and Liraries
Journal. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6475803_The_emerging_Web_20_social_software_
An_enabling_suite_of_sociable_technologies_in_health_and_health_care_education
Tredinnick, L. (2006). Web 2.0 and Business. doi:10.1177/0266382106072239

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Group Members
1. H.M.V.T.W Bandara ---------------- 14/AS/PS/001
2. S.M.P.S Chamara -------------------- 13/AS/091
3. W.G.Y Lakmal ----------------------- 14/AS/PS/013