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Web 2.0: enigma or opportunity?

Web 2.0 arrived four years back globally. Satyam Pati finds out where it is today in India and what it portends for India Inc.

Web 2.0 has no doubt been one of the most touted buzzwords in relation to the Internet for some years now. O’Reilly first made the term popular in his 2004 Web 2.0 Conference. Despite the liberal usage of the term to describe the web as we see it today, nobody has actually come to define it precisely. Is it a concept? Is it a technology? Is it just another fancy geek term? The answer most agree upon is that it is actually a combination of everything.

Continuously evolving Web

Sapotek’s CEO, Joshua Rand has some interesting ideas about this ubiquitous term. He said, “I would like to state upfront that I am not entirely enamored of the terms “Web 2.0” or what is now called “Web 1.0” (when referring to the nascent days of the Internet) or even what some are now labeling the pending “Web 3.0” movement (semantic web). These are artificial categories meant to distinguish between the varying phases of growth or development of the Internet over time (Web 1.0 obviously preceding Web 2.0 which is then followed by Web 3.0, etc., etc.).”

Rand further adds, “The problem is that in trying to encapsulate an identifiable Internet movement or trend over a specific time, the categories are quickly rendered insufficient, at best, and irrelevant, at worst, because the Internet is constantly evolving, changing and expanding, so it’s extremely difficult, even futile, to pin it down in order to describe precisely “what it is” at any given moment. Indeed, the inherently transformative powers, both existential and behavioral, of the Internet are what make it so appealing and such a phenomenon. It’s truly remarkable that such a relatively new technology or medium has very quickly become part of the fabric of our lives (for many of us around the world) or that it’s potential seems limitless. So, in the end, whatever you or I or anyone choose to call it (and certainly the Web 2.0 moniker has been used extensively by journalists, VCs, industry commentators et al.) just know that the convenient label we apply today will quickly lose its relevance and soon be replaced by yet another, equally insufficient label.”

Whatever Web 2.0 might mean for the Internet, it has definitely awakened the interest and imagination of enterprises throughout the world. “The term Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second-generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users”. This is how Wikipedia chooses to define Web 2.0.

Dr. Prasad Ram, R&D head Google India believes that in the present Web 2.0 era users can create and share content very easily through blogs, social networks, etc. compared with where the Web was seven years ago–it was difficult to publish information. He explained, “You needed to know HTML.  People also didn’t communicate by pushing things on the Web. The perceived quality of information available to you is a cross between the quality of the information itself and the ease of navigation. Now there’s a huge volume of information that’s easy to find. There are simple, easy to use user level technologies like blogs, wikis, social networking that are driving this development.”

Twenty years ago, no one had heard of the Internet. Ten years ago, you could connect to the Web, but it was a novelty. These days, if your computer’s not connected to the Internet, you look at it and say, “It’s broken.” While the Web is about linking documents and basic communication is about linking people, Web 2.0 links people and documents in a dynamically interlinked mesh.

The end-point of most documents these days is collaboration and communication, not a static artifact. It’s no longer about a printed artifact; it’s about people connecting and exchanging ideas. Collaboration is the product; the particular formats (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.) are just features. Families today are very busy and often on the go. The Web makes it much easier to keep track of all the moving people and pieces because you can get to your information from any place, any device. Ram said that Google is rethinking apps, building them not with Web functionality bolted on, but as native to the Web.

“The Web also adds a new dimension to how groups interact. People should be able to share their information with the different groups in their lives in a way that is convenient and effective—and that recognizes that, depending on the nature of the interaction, they often want to be semi-public or semi-private about it. What the web enables well for groups is that “in-between” state—groups that want to take advantage of the sharing power of the Web but not be totally public, say to have a group home on the Web for their wine club’s notes and knowledge, or to share or publish a calendar for the carpool or parent-teacher association.”, he added.

The inefficiencies usually inherent in group collaboration are one challenge that the Web is ideally suited to tackle. Thanks to the power of the Web, collaboration is becoming a starting point, not an add-on feature. For example, products like Google Docs & Spreadsheets enable users to edit documents together, turning what used to be an endless back-and-forth over e-mail into a shared document stored in one, universally accessible place. The next leaps and bounds in individual productivity are going to come from improvements in group collaboration rather than improvements in a single person’s work process.

The evolution of Web 2.0 is one area that academics have addressed some time or the other. However, Rand describes the evolution from a firm’s and developer’s point of view.

Ram said, “As the Internet evolved, it became apparent to developers that this medium could do far more than transmit static information and that it was capable, thanks to new and better and more robust programming languages and tools, of hosting applications and of involving the user more in the process. So then you started to see applications appear on the Web—such as those on Desktoptwo—where the end-user began working on the Internet as if he were using a locally hosted program, and then later accessing that program, and all information, from any device with an Internet connection. The Internet thereby became more of an enabler in that you could use it for purposes well beyond simple communication.”

Rand continued, saying, “Moreover, social networking tools where the user could actually input the information on the site and view it in “real time” so that the creator or maintainer of the site was no longer the only one responsible for the look of, or content on the site. And, perhaps the most important aspect of Web 2.0 is that the content can be shared by all users in an interactive way, so that we all became truly “connected” via message boards (take a look at the Message Board on Desktoptwo and you will see posts in many languages from people all over the world), forums, real-time collaboration, file or profile sharing, etc. No longer is information simply provided “as is” and a very good example of this is what’s called a “wiki” or a collaborative website, where the contributors are responsible for the content of the site. Wikipedia is perhaps the best known example of how a wiki welcomes all contributions but also allows the contributors, i.e., the community, to police itself along with the Wikipedia staff. In the end, Web 2.0 has further democratized the Internet by making the user an indispensable player in the process and to me that’s a very good thing.”

Web 2.0 and the Enterprise

Web 2.0 in one way or another refers to the hitherto unseen level of user interaction the Internet today makes possible. Going beyond chat perhaps, that’s probably the mantra for Web 2.0. However, social networking, wikis, tagging or virtual web-based desktop environments, are all very fine for the end user. What about the enterprise? Especially, what about the Indian Enterprise?

Web 2.0 can best be seen as a platform which provides the opportunity to create and modify apps and contents not only by the owner of a Web site, but by its users as well. This factor has evoked interest among a large number of global enterprises. India today is starting to move from a back-office destination to a R&D destination, at least in Information Technology. This is reflected by the amount of development work going on in the various India Labs of global software giants.

Indian IT Enterprises today, have forayed into adoption of Web 2.0 in some form or other. Cognizant is a good example. “Through our established Web 2.0 competency centre, we have developed various internal applications, frameworks and solution accelerators based on Web 2.0 concepts and technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, taxonomy, tagging, social search, collaboration, VoIP, RIAs, cloud and RSS. Our primary use of Web 2.0 has been for networking as all interactions and communications within the company are facilitated via various web 2.0 applications,” said Suresh Venugopal, Chief Architect, Cognizant on the extent to which Web 2.0 was being utilised in the company’s activities.

The underlying technologies that power Web 2.0 are mostly “old”/existing (HTML/DHTML, XML/XHTML, RDF, JavaScript, PHP, REST, Flash) and the overlying technologies/collaboration models are “new”/reinvented (Ajax, Syndication, Blogs, Wikis, Tags, Clouds, Mashup). Most of these are either open source or their equivalent variants are available on the World Wide Web at a low cost compared to proprietary technologies/tools. Leading online companies also provide lightweight service APIs (Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, Mapquest and Microsoft) to expedite adoption. Although the overall cost is non-quantifiable because it varies from case to case, there is a requirement for new infrastructure (in terms of hardware) to be set up to deliver the best using Web 2.0. As far as manpower availability and subsequent training are concerned, it is evolving in the Indian IT marketplace.

Oracle has been actively involved in modifying Web 2.0 for the enterprise. The Web Center Suite developed by Oracle leverages on Web 2.0 features to bring solutions for an enterprise. Vijay Anand, Vice President, Server Technologies, Oracle said, “Web 2.0 for the enterprise holds quite a few promises. The consumer technologies and concepts Web 2.0 has brought to the Internet can be applied in a slightly modified way to the Enterprise. Instant messaging, which is today ubiquitous, is already being utilized by firms for enabling constant communications between employees.”

He further added that employees are being encouraged to publish content online, even using RSS feeds. Web 2.0 enables active participation and collaboration within an enterprise. Utilities like tagging make online search much more efficient and relevant from the perspective of the enterprise. Not only does it turn up much more exact results but also puts you in touch with the experts who added the tag.

Blogging, another facet of Web 2.0, is a remarkable tool. For example there is a particular blog on Business Intelligence, which is popular and has high ratings on Technorati. In this manner, information availability, especially from the right, relevant and expert sources is a significant raison d’être for Web 2.0 from the standpoint of enterprise computing.

Another advantage of Web 2.0 as Anand pointed out is that an enterprise can draw on its customised apps. If we look at Facebook, third-party apps are a big hit with its users. The same concept can be utilized for creating customized business apps which employees within an organization can use. Web 2.0 is not currently at the stage where customized apps can be created from the scratch without knowledge of coding. However, things are getting there and the technologies available today can implement a significant level of customizability which can enhance productivity among users. Here it’s not just about the customers or clients but the technology can add value within an organization itself.

Rich UI is another area where Web 2.0 is bringing in changes. Applications like Desktoptwo practically create a virtual desktop environment. They can be utilized by enterprises in a big way where information does not need to be carried around, just accessed. JSF with AJAX built in can be used to create such apps. Oracle’s Webcenter in some ways utilizes such concepts where the application itself is a virtual platform for running other multiple sub-apps.

Internet Security firms have also moved towards Web 2.0 as Basant Rajan CTO, Symatec India pointed out, “Web 2.0 technologies have a long term business potential since they help teams work together towards a shared goal. The emergence of these technologies has created opportunities to envisage information on the Web. The applications of these technologies are helping organizations to meet stability, reliability and security requirements of corporate IT. Blogging, which is one form of Web 2.0 technologies, is a great tool for communication and collaboration. It can be used by domain experts in a company to communicate with customers and the world at large, as we do with the Symantec security Weblog.”

He added, “Alternatively, blogging can be used by employees to collaborate as we do with our internal TechUpdate blog. Wikis, SharePoint etc. are collaborative content creation software that allows anybody to create and share information, and Wikipedia is a great example of the power of this technique. We use these techniques extensively within the company. Sympedia is an internal encyclopedia of information that is of interest to our employees. Most employees in Symantec use wikis (Twiki, SocialText) or Microsoft SharePoint for collaboration within or across groups. While the list of Web 2.0 technologies goes on and includes other things like AJAX (interactive websites) etc. the above examples are representative of how Web 2.0 technologies can be leveraged by organizations.”

That Web 2.0 is part of Indian IT enterprises is a moot point, but how relevant is it in reality? Venugopal said, “Web 2.0 is a platform that leverages newer innovative models to evolve creative ways of doing business. In today’s network-centric world, communities are characterised by social networking and collaborative models. Hence, every successful company has to adapt to an open and extensible Web business ecosystem with new economic paradigms, revenue models and legal structures. For the Indian IT companies, which are people-intense and customer-centric enterprises, it is the best way to facilitate information collaboration, encourage direct and open 360-degrees communication, provide easy opportunities for self–expression, coordinate group activities and community participation, and develop social intelligence.”

So, what’s next?

Where will Web 2.0 go next? According to Rand, “That’s obviously a tougher question to answer because, as I say, the Internet is constantly evolving, but there are some trends that are definitely appearing. Certainly the experience of using the Internet as a platform has gotten much more profound and will continue to do so. These changes are having an impact on other areas of technology as well as on an end-users’ behavior.”

Because applications, programs, information, social networks, etc. all reside on the Web or, “in the cloud,” as we like to say, the computer or device that you use to access the Internet becomes less important. We’re certainly starting to see that Web 2.0 has had an impact on hardware in that any Web-enabled device—a PC, a thin-client terminal or even a handheld device like a PDA or cell phone—can become a computer since the applications need not be installed on the device. As a result of this greater reliance on the Web, Web applications like Desktoptwo are getting much better and more robust to the point where they mimic desktop applications in terms of functionality. Consequently, in a case of mutual causation, you’ll see Web devices (the hardware, that is) getting smaller, cheaper and faster.

Rand went ahead saying, “I’m not suggesting that computers, as we know them, will disappear entirely, but no longer do you need a machine with tremendous processing power if all of the applications and data reside on the Web. Think of all of the initiatives to create the $100 laptop, for example, and you’ll immediately see the value of having your applications and information reside “in the cloud” and not on the local machine, although that simple machine enables you to access that information “in the cloud” just as well as high-powered PC. This shift, as it were, obviously affects end-users/consumers as they become less reliant on one device and more dependent on the Web. People no longer want to depend on one machine and they are starting to rely on the Web as a repository for just about everything, including the place to do their everyday computing, so the computer is more of a conduit than a safe deposit box. Lastly, and more in an anecdotal sense, it’s also true that computer users, many of whom still save most or all of their files and information locally on a PC, are obviously putting themselves at great risk should the PC fail or if the hard drive burns out. So, in the end, the Web 2.0 movement or its successor will continue to produce fantastic applications and services on the Internet and continue to render hardware less relevant, insofar as it won’t be needed for much beyond Web access.

As for what’s coming next, one thing that people have come to recognize is that whether you’re talking about Web 1.0 or Web 2.0, the one indispensable factor, apart from the Internet, is the human being. In other words, the content that appears on a site is still created by, edited by and controlled by a person. We put it there and while others may manipulate it, the human touch is still inevitable. That, however, is starting to change. What some commentators have taken to calling Web 3.0 or the semantic Web may be the next phase of Internet evolution in that machines will communicate with each other without having to involve the human element. That’s another topic perhaps best saved for another day, but it’s starting to get very interesting when the Internet goes beyond being a platform and starts becoming the driver of change as well.”

Rand believes Web 2.0 has great promises for India, “Indians are starting companies and creating Web 2.0 applications and services that are being used by Indians but that will also be used by people everywhere. Moreover, and this is an important tangent, since many Web 2.0 applications are built using open source software (free software, that is), the barriers to entry are much lower. Anyone can learn how to become a programmer or how to create these Web applications and servers with a bit of patience and ambition. Young Indian students, for example, will get the “entrepreneurial bug” as many already have, and they won’t necessarily need IIT degrees to realize their dreams. Sure, an IIT degree is quite helpful, but if a couple of kids can develop a useful site and launch it from a home in Mumbai to be used by people from around the world, then it’s fair to say that Web 2.0 is both a technology enabler and a social mobility tool. Of course, these same arguments apply to everywhere in the world just as they do to India, but because India has a solid and growing technological foundation and a population that is more and more interested in the Internet and all things technology, then certainly I should think that India is in a good position to assume a strong leadership role moving forward in both development and innovation.”

India has most definitely started and is to a great extent right on the Web 2.0 roadmap. The opportunities for Web based companies are incredible to say the least. As Rand pointed out, an IIT degree might not be mandatory for a Web 2.0 success, thus it can play the role of a stepping-stone and a foundation for start-ups. However, as is the case with any new technology, and Web 2.0 is certainly not new, adoption is one thing but the deciding factors for Indian IT enterprises will be adaptation, improvisation, application and finally but even more critically exploitation. Web 2.0 arrived in India with Orkut, but will Indian enterprises leverage and learn to the greatest extent possible? Hopefully they will, before the next wave arrives, and perhaps it would be prudent to say, time is of the essence.

satyam.pati@expressindia.com