The Web Now Calls for People Participation and Social Networking


Rosy Vohra

Need for up gradation

With the markets going increasingly customer-centered, it becomes imperative for the technology to be user-friendly as well. In the current scenario it is the customer also referred to as the end user who is crowned the king. The end-user is interestingly being led by technology. In times to come it is the end user who will ultimately dictate the formulation of products and services. In such a backdrop it becomes increasingly crucial for the organizations to understand what are the needs and demands from the user end. For this end-user’s meaningful participation and active contribution helps thwart the ice. Organizations who will take up a pro-active stance to this aspect of customer focused business will ultimately rule the roost. Traditional ways of conducting business and trying to drive the fragile market forces by their own fundamentals will no longer serve the purpose.

For more than a decade web has served as an active platform to connect business communities with the end users. Dynamic Organizations striving to stay ahead want to understand each process thoroughly ongoing in the mind of the users. This begins with lifting up the idea generated in the mind of a user. Business hawks want to capture that idea and conceptualize it into product and services before the idea it self has circulated amongst competitors and gets old or redundant in the process. So the generation of the creative idea is the magic. To catch it fast is the potential business.

To catch the idea and potential business proactively calls for customizing the software and the existing web technology accordingly. It is being increasingly tailor made for the users in order to understand their needs, desires and demands.

Managing Technology

The already existing advanced web technology is now being adapted to facilitate the end users who shall be the potential customers and is being promoted as Web 2.0. This is undertaken by way of using

• Weblogs to get more and more variety of creative ideas brewing in the minds of the end-users. In Weblogs the content and functionality of the webpage will be controlled as per the desires of the users. Most of the Weblogs are open to general public to put forward their ideas across for the whole world to read.
• Audio-Video publications in the form of podcasts and RSS feeds.
• Article submission directories in which resourceful articles can be uploaded by the end-users for anyone and everyone to read.
• Wikis such as the wikipedia which can be created updated and searched by anyone who has access to it.
• The websites working in consonance with Web 2.0 are based on Ajax frame works that are highly interactive and are based on user-friendly interfaces. Websites shall not be a monologue or business statements of the webmaster but it shall be commanded by the concepts and functionalities forwarded by the end-user. Here on the impetus shall be on social networking.
• Ajax based internet applications have helped increase the speed, functionality, usability and interactivity of the web page between the server and the client in multifold.
• Dynamic content management, message boards and community building aspects thrive towards social networking. The content and functionality being contributed by and shared amongst end-users them selves.
• Use of the XML based format endowed with the capacity to convert databases from one format to another is yet another feature of Web 2.0 technology.

The features of Web 2.0 stated above are based on guidelines laid down by W3C and are mutually agreed upon universally by the web-vendors across the globe.

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