Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student University.
Moodle is a free software e-learning platform (also known as a Course Management System (CMS), or Learning Management Systems (LMS), or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)).
Moodle features
Moodle has many features expected from an e-learning platform including:
Forums
Content managing (resources)
Quizzes with different kinds of questions
Blogs
Wikis
Database activities
Surveys
Chat
Glossaries
Peer assessment
Multi-language support (over 60 languages are supported for the interface)
Moodle is modular in construction and can readily be extended by creating plugins for specific new functionality. Moodle's infrastructure supports many types of plugin:
Activities
Resource types
Question types
Data field types (for the database activity)
Graphical themes
Authentication methods
Enrolment methods
Content Filters
Many third-party Moodle plugins are freely available making use of this infrastructure.
PHP can be used to author and contribute new modules. Moodle's development has been assisted by the work of open source programmers. This has contributed towards its rapid development and rapid bug fixes.
Specification
Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X, NetWare and any other systems that support PHP, including most webhost providers.
Data is stored in a single database: MySQL and PostgreSQL were the only feasible options in Moodle 1.6. Version 1.7 released November 2006, and makes full use of database abstraction so that other databases can be used just as easily (Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are two specific target DBMSes). The current version of Moodle, version 1.8, was released in March 2007 with improved roles management.
Interoperability
There are many dimensions to interoperability for e-learning systems. Moodle's interoperability features include:
*Authentication, using LDAP, Shibboleth, or various other standard methods (e.g. IMAP) *Enrollment, using IMS Enterprise among other standard methods, or by direct interaction with an external database
*Quizzes and quiz questions, allowing import/export in a number of formats: GIFT (moodle's own format), IMS QTI, XML and XHTML (NB although export works very well, import is currently not complete)
*Resources, using IMS Content Packaging, SCORM, AICC, LAMS Integration with other Content Management Systems such as Postnuke (via third-party extensions)
*Syndication using RSS or Atom newsfeeds - external newsfeeds can be displayed in a course, and forums, blogs, and other features can be made available to others as newsfeeds.
*Moodle also has import features for use with other specific systems, such as importing quizzes or entire courses from Blackboard or WebCT.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Ten Ways to Improve our Communication Skills
We all have people with whom we have to work to get things done. Our ability to communicate with clients, customers, subordinates, peers, and superiors can enhance our effectiveness or sabotage us. Many times, our verbal skills make the difference.
Here are 10 ways to increase your verbal efficacy at work:
Develop our voice – A high whiney voice is not perceived to be one of authority. In fact, a high soft voice can make you sound like prey to an aggressive co-worker who is out to make his/her career at the expense of anyone else. Begin doing exercises to lower the pitch of your voice. Here is one to start: Sing — but do it an octave lower on all your favorite songs. Practice this and, after a period of time, your voice will begin to lower.
Slow down – People will perceive you as nervous and unsure of yourself if you talk fast. However, be careful not to slow down to the point where people begin to finish your sentences just to help you finish.
Animate our voice – Avoid a monotone. Use dynamics. Your pitch should raise and lower. Your volume should be soft and loud. Listen to your local TV news anchor; take notes.
Enunciate our words – Speak clearly. Don’t mumble. If people are always saying, “huh,” to you, you are mumbling.
Use appropriate volume – Use a volume that is appropriate for the setting. Speak more softly when you are alone and close. Speak louder when you are speaking to larger groups or across larger spaces.
Pronounce our words correctly – People will judge your competency through your vocabulary. If you aren’t sure how to say a word, don’t use it.
Use the right words – If you’re not sure of the meaning of a word, don’t use it. Start a program of learning a new word a day. Use it sometime in your conversations during the day.
Make eye contact – I know a person who is very competent in her job. However, when she speaks to individuals or groups, she does so with her eyes shut. When she opens them periodically, she stares off in a direction away from the listener. She is perceived as incompetent by those with whom she consults. One technique to help with this is to consciously look into one of the listener’s eyes and then move to the other. Going back and forth between the two (and I hope they only have two) makes your eyes appear to sparkle. Another trick is to imagine a letter “T” on the listener’s face with the cross bar being an imaginary line across the eye brows and the vertical line coming down the center of the nose. Keep your eyes scanning that “T” zone.
Use gestures – Make your whole body talk. Use smaller gestures for individuals and small groups. The gestures should get larger as the group that one is addressing increases in size.
Don’t send mixed messages – Make your words, gestures, facial expressions, tone, and message match. Disciplining an employee while smiling sends a mixed message and, therefore, is ineffective. If you have to deliver a negative message, make your words, facial expressions, and tone match the message.
Improving our communication skills will improve our productivity.
Here are 10 ways to increase your verbal efficacy at work:
Develop our voice – A high whiney voice is not perceived to be one of authority. In fact, a high soft voice can make you sound like prey to an aggressive co-worker who is out to make his/her career at the expense of anyone else. Begin doing exercises to lower the pitch of your voice. Here is one to start: Sing — but do it an octave lower on all your favorite songs. Practice this and, after a period of time, your voice will begin to lower.
Slow down – People will perceive you as nervous and unsure of yourself if you talk fast. However, be careful not to slow down to the point where people begin to finish your sentences just to help you finish.
Animate our voice – Avoid a monotone. Use dynamics. Your pitch should raise and lower. Your volume should be soft and loud. Listen to your local TV news anchor; take notes.
Enunciate our words – Speak clearly. Don’t mumble. If people are always saying, “huh,” to you, you are mumbling.
Use appropriate volume – Use a volume that is appropriate for the setting. Speak more softly when you are alone and close. Speak louder when you are speaking to larger groups or across larger spaces.
Pronounce our words correctly – People will judge your competency through your vocabulary. If you aren’t sure how to say a word, don’t use it.
Use the right words – If you’re not sure of the meaning of a word, don’t use it. Start a program of learning a new word a day. Use it sometime in your conversations during the day.
Make eye contact – I know a person who is very competent in her job. However, when she speaks to individuals or groups, she does so with her eyes shut. When she opens them periodically, she stares off in a direction away from the listener. She is perceived as incompetent by those with whom she consults. One technique to help with this is to consciously look into one of the listener’s eyes and then move to the other. Going back and forth between the two (and I hope they only have two) makes your eyes appear to sparkle. Another trick is to imagine a letter “T” on the listener’s face with the cross bar being an imaginary line across the eye brows and the vertical line coming down the center of the nose. Keep your eyes scanning that “T” zone.
Use gestures – Make your whole body talk. Use smaller gestures for individuals and small groups. The gestures should get larger as the group that one is addressing increases in size.
Don’t send mixed messages – Make your words, gestures, facial expressions, tone, and message match. Disciplining an employee while smiling sends a mixed message and, therefore, is ineffective. If you have to deliver a negative message, make your words, facial expressions, and tone match the message.
Improving our communication skills will improve our productivity.
Cold Calling Tips
Cold Calling Is Still An Effective Sales Tactic If Done Right
The obituary for cold calling is premature. While in the perfect world, your phone would be ringing off the hook all day with clients offering you business, the reality is that if you want business, you need to go after it, and cold calling is an effective sales tactic if it's done properly.
But many small business people would rather spend an entire day in a dentist's chair than go cold calling. Does the thought of cold calling makes your stomach drop to your toes? These cold calling tips won't eliminate your fear, but they will help you make cold calling a more successful experience.
1) Focus on the goal when cold calling.
Beginners tend to think that cold calling is about making the sale. It's not. It's about getting the chance to make the sale. Specifically, the purpose of a cold call is to set an appointment to make the pitch.
2) Research your markets and prospects.
You need to target your cold calling to the right audience.
Use market research to focus on your target market. Then find out as much as you possibly can about the company or individual you're going to cold call in advance. This gives you the huge advantage of being able to talk about their business and their needs when you call them.
3) Prepare an opening statement for your cold call.
This lets you organize your thoughts before cold calling, and helps you avoid common mistakes in the cold call opening that would give the person you're calling the chance to terminate the conversation. For instance, you should never ask, "Is this a good time to talk?" or "How are you today?" Don't read your opening statement into the phone, but use it as a framework to get the conversation off to a good start.
4) What should be in the opening statement of your cold call?
This organizational scheme works well: "Include a greeting and an introduction, a reference point (something about the prospect), the benefits of your product or service, and a transition to a question or dialogue. For example, 'Good afternoon, Ms. Marshall. This is Ken Brown with Green Works. I read in the local paper that you recently broke ground for a new office complex. We specialize in commercial landscape services that allow you to reduce in-house maintenance costs and comply with the city's new environmental regulations. I'd like to ask a few questions to determine whether one of our programs might meet your needs.'"
5) Prepare a script for the rest of your cold call.
Lay out the benefits of your product or service and the reasons your prospect should buy. Write out possible objections and your answer to them. Without a script, it's too easy to leave something out or meander. Once again, it's not that you'll be reading your script word for word when you call, but that you've prepared the framework of the cold call in advance.
6) Ask for an appointment at a specific time when cold calling.
Say, "Would Wednesday at 11 a.m. be a good time to meet?" instead of saying, "Can I meet with you to discuss this next week?"
7) Remember that gatekeepers are your allies not your foes.
Be pleasant to whoever picks up the phone or is guarding the inner sanctum when cold calling.
Develop strategies to get the gatekeeper on your side. Sometimes asking, "I wonder if you could help me?" will help you get the information you need, such as the name of the right person to talk to or when the best time to contact the prospect is. Learning the names of gatekeepers and being friendly when cold calling helps, too.
8) Smooth the way for your cold call by sending prospects a small, unique promotional item.
This helps break the ice and makes your business stand out from the crowd. Pat Cavanaugh, says, "It's amazing. A $2.15 crazy little item we've sent out has helped us get Fortune 500 accounts. When we call, they say, "Oh yeah....you were the one that sent me that..."
9) Do your cold calling early in the morning, if possible.
That's the best time to reach the decision maker directly, and for most people, the time that they're most energized.
10) Be persistent when cold calling.
"Eighty percent of new sales are made after the fifth contact, yet the majority of sales people give up after the second call".
And above all, practice, practice, practice. While cold calling may never be much fun for you, you can get better at it, and the more you practice cold calling, the more effective a sales tactic it will be. So get your script and your call list together and reach for the phone. The people who want to do business with you are out there - but you have to let them know about you first.
The obituary for cold calling is premature. While in the perfect world, your phone would be ringing off the hook all day with clients offering you business, the reality is that if you want business, you need to go after it, and cold calling is an effective sales tactic if it's done properly.
But many small business people would rather spend an entire day in a dentist's chair than go cold calling. Does the thought of cold calling makes your stomach drop to your toes? These cold calling tips won't eliminate your fear, but they will help you make cold calling a more successful experience.
1) Focus on the goal when cold calling.
Beginners tend to think that cold calling is about making the sale. It's not. It's about getting the chance to make the sale. Specifically, the purpose of a cold call is to set an appointment to make the pitch.
2) Research your markets and prospects.
You need to target your cold calling to the right audience.
Use market research to focus on your target market. Then find out as much as you possibly can about the company or individual you're going to cold call in advance. This gives you the huge advantage of being able to talk about their business and their needs when you call them.
3) Prepare an opening statement for your cold call.
This lets you organize your thoughts before cold calling, and helps you avoid common mistakes in the cold call opening that would give the person you're calling the chance to terminate the conversation. For instance, you should never ask, "Is this a good time to talk?" or "How are you today?" Don't read your opening statement into the phone, but use it as a framework to get the conversation off to a good start.
4) What should be in the opening statement of your cold call?
This organizational scheme works well: "Include a greeting and an introduction, a reference point (something about the prospect), the benefits of your product or service, and a transition to a question or dialogue. For example, 'Good afternoon, Ms. Marshall. This is Ken Brown with Green Works. I read in the local paper that you recently broke ground for a new office complex. We specialize in commercial landscape services that allow you to reduce in-house maintenance costs and comply with the city's new environmental regulations. I'd like to ask a few questions to determine whether one of our programs might meet your needs.'"
5) Prepare a script for the rest of your cold call.
Lay out the benefits of your product or service and the reasons your prospect should buy. Write out possible objections and your answer to them. Without a script, it's too easy to leave something out or meander. Once again, it's not that you'll be reading your script word for word when you call, but that you've prepared the framework of the cold call in advance.
6) Ask for an appointment at a specific time when cold calling.
Say, "Would Wednesday at 11 a.m. be a good time to meet?" instead of saying, "Can I meet with you to discuss this next week?"
7) Remember that gatekeepers are your allies not your foes.
Be pleasant to whoever picks up the phone or is guarding the inner sanctum when cold calling.
Develop strategies to get the gatekeeper on your side. Sometimes asking, "I wonder if you could help me?" will help you get the information you need, such as the name of the right person to talk to or when the best time to contact the prospect is. Learning the names of gatekeepers and being friendly when cold calling helps, too.
8) Smooth the way for your cold call by sending prospects a small, unique promotional item.
This helps break the ice and makes your business stand out from the crowd. Pat Cavanaugh, says, "It's amazing. A $2.15 crazy little item we've sent out has helped us get Fortune 500 accounts. When we call, they say, "Oh yeah....you were the one that sent me that..."
9) Do your cold calling early in the morning, if possible.
That's the best time to reach the decision maker directly, and for most people, the time that they're most energized.
10) Be persistent when cold calling.
"Eighty percent of new sales are made after the fifth contact, yet the majority of sales people give up after the second call".
And above all, practice, practice, practice. While cold calling may never be much fun for you, you can get better at it, and the more you practice cold calling, the more effective a sales tactic it will be. So get your script and your call list together and reach for the phone. The people who want to do business with you are out there - but you have to let them know about you first.
Service-oriented architecture
An Introduction to Service-Oriented Architecture
The use of heterogeneous technologies and applications in corporations is a reality. At a time when resources are scarce, IT shops cannot just throw away their existing applications; rather, they must leverage their existing investments. service-oriented architecture (SOA) is popular because it lets you reuse applications and it promises interoperability between heterogeneous applications and technologies.
Service Oriented Architecture is basically an evolution of distributed computing. SOA provides a modularity of business logic, which can be presented as service for clients (client as in client-server architecture). These services are loosely coupled in nature, in the sense the 'User Interface' can remain completely independent of the service layer.
It is an architecture that relies on service-orientation as its fundamental design principle. SOA environment are made available as independent services can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation. These concepts can be applied to business, software and other types of producer/consumer systems.
SOA definitions
SOA is a design for linking business and computational resources (principally organizations, applications and data) on demand to achieve the desired results for service consumers (which can be end users or other services). OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) defines SOA as the following:
A paradigm for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains. It provides a uniform means to offer, discover, interact with and use capabilities to produce desired effects consistent with measurable preconditions and expectations.
What is SOA?
The concept of a service is nothing new, but the notion of an SOA has evolved over the past couple of years. It's an architectural style of building software applications that promotes loose coupling between components so that you can reuse them. Thus, it's a new way of building applications with the following characteristics:
Services are software components that have published contracts/interfaces; these contracts are platform-, language-, and operating-system-independent. XML and the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) are the enabling technologies for SOA, since they're platform-independent standards. Consumers can dynamically discover services. Services are interoperable.
Why SOA?
Today's IT organizations invariably employ disparate systems and technologies. Most analysts predict that J2EE and .NET will continue to coexist in most organizations and the trend of having heterogeneous technologies in IT shops will continue. Moreover, creating applications that leverage these different technologies has historically been a daunting task. SOA provides a clear solution to these application integration issues by allowing systems to expose their functionality via standardized, interoperable interfaces.
Using SOA offers several key advantages. You can:
Adapt applications to changing technologies. Easily integrate applications with other systems. Leverage existing investments in legacy applications. Quickly and easily create a business process from existing services.
SOA principles
The following guiding principles define the ground rules for development, maintenance, and usage of the SOA
Reuse, granularity, modularity, composability, componentization, and interoperability Compliance to standards (both common and industry-specific) Services identification and categorization, provisioning and delivery, and monitoring and tracking The following specific architectural principles for design and service definition focus on specific themes that influence the intrinsic behaviour of a system and the style of its design:
Service Encapsulation - A lot of existing web-services are consolidated to be used under the SOA Architecture. Many a times, such services have not been planned to be under SOA.
Service Loose coupling - Services maintain a relationship that minimizes dependencies and only requires that they maintain an awareness of each other
Service contract - Services adhere to a communications agreement, as defined collectively by one or more service description documents
Service abstraction - Beyond what is described in the service contract, services hide logic from the outside world
Service reusability - Logic is divided into services with the intention of promoting reuse
Service composability - Collections of services can be coordinated and assembled to form composite services
Service autonomy – Services have control over the logic they encapsulate
Service optimization – All else equal, high-quality services are generally considered preferable to low-quality ones
Service discoverability – Services are designed to be outwardly descriptive so that they can be found and assessed via available discovery mechanisms
In addition, the following factors should also be taken into account when defining a SOA implementation:
*SOA Reference Architecture covers the SOA Reference Architecture, which provides a worked design of an enterprise-wide SOA implementation with detailed architecture diagrams, component descriptions, detailed requirements, design patterns, opinions about standards, patterns on regulation compliance, standards templates etc.
*Life cycle management introduces the Services Lifecycle and provides a detailed process for services management though the service lifecycle, from inception through to retirement or repurposing of the services. It also contains an appendix that includes organization and governance best practices, templates, comments on key SOA standards, and recommended links for more information.
*Efficient use of system resources
*Service maturity and performance
*EAI Enterprise Application Integration
The use of heterogeneous technologies and applications in corporations is a reality. At a time when resources are scarce, IT shops cannot just throw away their existing applications; rather, they must leverage their existing investments. service-oriented architecture (SOA) is popular because it lets you reuse applications and it promises interoperability between heterogeneous applications and technologies.
Service Oriented Architecture is basically an evolution of distributed computing. SOA provides a modularity of business logic, which can be presented as service for clients (client as in client-server architecture). These services are loosely coupled in nature, in the sense the 'User Interface' can remain completely independent of the service layer.
It is an architecture that relies on service-orientation as its fundamental design principle. SOA environment are made available as independent services can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation. These concepts can be applied to business, software and other types of producer/consumer systems.
SOA definitions
SOA is a design for linking business and computational resources (principally organizations, applications and data) on demand to achieve the desired results for service consumers (which can be end users or other services). OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) defines SOA as the following:
A paradigm for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains. It provides a uniform means to offer, discover, interact with and use capabilities to produce desired effects consistent with measurable preconditions and expectations.
What is SOA?
The concept of a service is nothing new, but the notion of an SOA has evolved over the past couple of years. It's an architectural style of building software applications that promotes loose coupling between components so that you can reuse them. Thus, it's a new way of building applications with the following characteristics:
Services are software components that have published contracts/interfaces; these contracts are platform-, language-, and operating-system-independent. XML and the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) are the enabling technologies for SOA, since they're platform-independent standards. Consumers can dynamically discover services. Services are interoperable.
Why SOA?
Today's IT organizations invariably employ disparate systems and technologies. Most analysts predict that J2EE and .NET will continue to coexist in most organizations and the trend of having heterogeneous technologies in IT shops will continue. Moreover, creating applications that leverage these different technologies has historically been a daunting task. SOA provides a clear solution to these application integration issues by allowing systems to expose their functionality via standardized, interoperable interfaces.
Using SOA offers several key advantages. You can:
Adapt applications to changing technologies. Easily integrate applications with other systems. Leverage existing investments in legacy applications. Quickly and easily create a business process from existing services.
SOA principles
The following guiding principles define the ground rules for development, maintenance, and usage of the SOA
Reuse, granularity, modularity, composability, componentization, and interoperability Compliance to standards (both common and industry-specific) Services identification and categorization, provisioning and delivery, and monitoring and tracking The following specific architectural principles for design and service definition focus on specific themes that influence the intrinsic behaviour of a system and the style of its design:
Service Encapsulation - A lot of existing web-services are consolidated to be used under the SOA Architecture. Many a times, such services have not been planned to be under SOA.
Service Loose coupling - Services maintain a relationship that minimizes dependencies and only requires that they maintain an awareness of each other
Service contract - Services adhere to a communications agreement, as defined collectively by one or more service description documents
Service abstraction - Beyond what is described in the service contract, services hide logic from the outside world
Service reusability - Logic is divided into services with the intention of promoting reuse
Service composability - Collections of services can be coordinated and assembled to form composite services
Service autonomy – Services have control over the logic they encapsulate
Service optimization – All else equal, high-quality services are generally considered preferable to low-quality ones
Service discoverability – Services are designed to be outwardly descriptive so that they can be found and assessed via available discovery mechanisms
In addition, the following factors should also be taken into account when defining a SOA implementation:
*SOA Reference Architecture covers the SOA Reference Architecture, which provides a worked design of an enterprise-wide SOA implementation with detailed architecture diagrams, component descriptions, detailed requirements, design patterns, opinions about standards, patterns on regulation compliance, standards templates etc.
*Life cycle management introduces the Services Lifecycle and provides a detailed process for services management though the service lifecycle, from inception through to retirement or repurposing of the services. It also contains an appendix that includes organization and governance best practices, templates, comments on key SOA standards, and recommended links for more information.
*Efficient use of system resources
*Service maturity and performance
*EAI Enterprise Application Integration
Monday, July 30, 2007
WEB 2.0
Web 2.0
A second phase in the evolution of the World Wide Web where developers use new technologies to create websites that look and act like desktop programs and encourage collaboration and communication between users. Blogs, E-Mail Newsletters and RSS Feeds are just a few of the new technologies Web 2.0 technology offers.
· a resurgence in the web economy · a new level of technological interactivity between web sites and services or social phenomena deriving from new types of online communities and social networks
Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2003 and popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004, refers to a perceived second-generation of Web based communities and hosted services such as social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O'Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.
Though the term suggests a new version of the Web, it does not refer to an update to World Wide Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways systems developers have used the web platform. According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the beginnings of the World Wide Web.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Characteristics of "Web 2.0"
3 Technology overview
4 Innovations associated with "Web 2.0"
4.1 Web-based applications and desktops
4.2 Rich Internet applications
4.2.1 Server-side software
4.2.2 Client-side software
4.3 XML and RSS
4.3.1 Specialized protocols
4.4 Web protocols
5 Web 2.0 and Language Learning Technologies
6 Criticism
Introduction
The phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web; advocates suggest that technologies such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, Web APIs, Web standards and online Web services imply a significant change in web usage.
As used by its supporters, the phrase "Web 2.0" can also refer to one or more of the following:
The transition of web sites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming computing platforms serving web applications to end-users
A social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and "the market as a conversation"
Enhanced organization and categorization of content, emphasizing deep linking
A rise in the economic value of the Web, possibly surpassing the impact of the dot-com boom of the late 1990s
Earlier users of the phrase "Web 2.0" employed it as a synonym for "Semantic Web", and the two concepts do complement each other. The combination of social-networking systems such as FOAF and XFN with the development of tag-based folksonomies, delivered through blogs and wikis, sets up a basis for a semantic web environment.
Tim O'Reilly regards Web 2.0 as business embracing the web as a platform and utilising its strengths (global audiences, for example). O'Reilly considers that Eric Schmidt's abridged slogan, don't fight the Internet, encompasses the essence of Web 2.0 — building applications and services around the unique features of the Internet, as opposed to building applications and expecting the Internet to suit as a platform (effectively "fighting the Internet").
On September 30, 2005, Tim O'Reilly wrote a piece summarizing the subject. The mind-map pictured above (constructed by Markus Angermeier [5] on November 11, 2005) sums up the memes of Web 2.0, with example-sites and services attached.In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle summarized what they saw as key principles of Web 2.0 applications:
the web as a platform
data as the driving force
network effects created by an architecture of participation
innovation in assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development)
lightweight business models enabled by content and service syndication
the end of the software adoption cycle ("the perpetual beta")
software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of The Long Tail. ease of picking-up by early adopters
Tim O'Reilly gave examples of companies or products that embody these principles in his description of his "four plus one" levels in the hierarchy of Web 2.0-ness:
Level 3 applications, the most "Web 2.0," which could only exist on the Internet, deriving their power from the human connections and network effects that Web 2.0 makes possible, and growing in effectiveness the more people use them. O'Reilly gives as examples: eBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, dodgeball, WorkACE and Adsense. Level 2 applications, which can operate offline but which gain advantages from going online. O'Reilly cited Flickr, which benefits from its shared photo-database and from its community-generated tag database. Level 1 applications, also available offline but which gain features online. O'Reilly pointed to Writely (since 10 October 2006: Google Docs & Spreadsheets, offering group-editing capability online) and iTunes (because of its music-store portion). Level 0 applications would work as well offline. O'Reilly gave the examples of MapQuest, Yahoo! Local, and Google Maps. Mapping applications using contributions from users to advantage can rank as "level 2". Non-web applications like email, instant-messaging clients and the telephone.
Characteristics of "Web 2.0"
This section overlaps with other sections; it should be combined with the rest of the article.
While interested parties continue to debate the definition of a Web 2.0 application, a Web 2.0 web-site may exhibit some basic common characteristics.
These might include:
"Network as platform" — delivering (and allowing users to use) applications entirely through a browser. Users owning the data on the site and exercising control over the data. An architecture of participation that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.This stands in sharp contrast to hierarchical access-control in applications, in which systems categorize users into roles with varying levels of functionality. A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks. Some social-networking aspects. Enhanced graphical interfaces such as gradients and rounded corners (absent in the so-called Web 1.0 era). The impossibility of excluding group-members who don’t contribute to the provision of goods from sharing profits gives rise to the possibility that rational members will prefer to withhold their contribution of effort and free-ride on the contribution of others.
The concept of Web-as-participation-platform captures many of these characteristics. Bart Decrem, founder and former CEO of Flock, calls Web 2.0 the "participatory Web" and regards Web-as-information-source as Web 1.0.
Technology overview
The complex and evolving technology infrastructure of Web 2.0 includes server-software, content-syndication, messaging-protocols, standards-based browsers with plugins and extensions, and various client-applications. These differing but complementary approaches provide Web 2.0 with information-storage, creation, and dissemination capabilities that go beyond what the public formerly expected of websites.
A Web 2.0 website may typically feature a number of the following techniques:
Rich Internet application techniques, optionally Ajax-based CSS
Semantically valid XHTML markup and the use of Microformats
Syndication and aggregation of data in RSS/Atom
Clean and meaningful URLs
Extensive use of folksonomies (in the form of tags or tagclouds, for example)
Use of wiki software either completely or partially (where partial use may grow to become the complete platform for the site)
Use of Open source software either completely or partially, such as the LAMP solution stack XACML over SOAP for access control between organisations and domains
Weblog publishing
Mashups
REST or XML Webservice APIs
Innovations associated with "Web 2.0"
Web-based applications and desktops
The richer user-experience afforded by Ajax has prompted the development of web-sites that mimic personal computer applications, such as word processing, the spreadsheet, and slide-show presentation. WYSIWYG wiki sites replicate many features of PC authoring applications. Still other sites perform collaboration and project management functions. In 2006 Google, Inc. acquired one of the best-known sites of this broad class, Writely.
Several browser-based "operating systems" or "online desktops" have also appeared. They essentially function as application platforms, not as operating systems per se. These services mimic the user experience of desktop operating-systems, offering features and applications similar to a PC environment. They have as their distinguishing characteristic the ability to run within any modern browser.
Numerous web based application services appeared during the dot-com bubble of 1997–2001 and then vanished, having failed to gain a critical mass of customers. In 2005 WebEx acquired one of the better-known of these, Intranets.com, for slightly more than the total it had raised in venture capital after six years of trading.
Rich Internet applications
Main article: Rich Internet applicationRecently, rich-Internet application techniques such as Ajax, Adobe Flash, Flex, Nexaweb, OpenLaszlo and Silverlight have evolved that can improve the user-experience in browser-based applications. These technologies allow a web-page to request an update for some part of its content, and to alter that part in the browser, without needing to refresh the whole page at the same time.
Server-side software
The functionality of Web 2.0 applications builds on the existing Web server architecture, but relies much more heavily on back-end software. Syndication differs only nominally from the methods of publishing using dynamic content management, but web services typically require much more robust database and workflow support, and become very similar to the traditional intranet functionality of an application server. Vendor approaches to date fall either under a universal server approach (which bundles most of the necessary functionality in a single server platform) or under a web-server plugin approach (which uses standard publishing tools enhanced with API interfaces and other tools).
Client-side software
The extra functionality provided by Web 2.0 depends on the ability of users to work with the data stored on servers. This can come about through forms in an HTML page, through a scripting language such as Javascript, or through Flash, Silverlight or Java. These methods all make use of the client computer to reduce server workloads and to increase the responsiveness of the application.
XML and RSS
Advocates of Web 2.0 may regard syndication of site content as a Web 2.0 feature, involving as it does standardized protocols which permit end-users to make use of a site's data in another context (such as another web-site, a browser plugin, or a separate desktop application). Protocols which permit syndication include RSS (Really Simple Syndication — also known as "web syndication"), RDF (as in RSS 1.1), and Atom, all of them XML-based formats. Increasingly, these technologies are becoming known as Web feed as the usability of Web 2.0 evolves and the RSS icon replaced by the more user-friendly Feeds icon.
Specialized protocols
Specialized protocols such as FOAF and XFN (both for social networking) extend the functionality of sites or permit end-users to interact without centralized web-sites. (See microformats for more specialized data formats.)
Web protocols
Web communication protocols support the Web 2.0 infrastructure. Major protocols include REST and SOAP.
REST (Representational State Transfer) indicates a way to access and manipulate data on a server using the HTTP verbs GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE
SOAP involves POSTing XML messages and requests to a server that may contain quite complex, but pre-defined, instructions for the server to follow In both cases, an API defines access to the service. Often servers use proprietary APIs, but standard web-service APIs (for example, for posting to a blog) have also come into wide use. Most (but not all) communications with web services involve some form of XML (eXtensible Markup Language).
Web 2.0 and Language Learning Technologies
In second language learning, Web 2.0 technologies have been described as new and emerging technologies. Technologies such as on-demand video, file sharing, blogs, wikis, and podcasting have become very popular with language educators and students. Users of these technologies have emphasised their collaborative and community-building aspects, and suggested they are a natural ally for a constructivist learning methodology. A number of events sposored by the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG in the UK, Japan and India have focused on the use of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance language learning environments.
Criticism
Given the lack of set standards as to what "Web 2.0" actually means, implies, or requires, the term can mean radically different things to different people.
Many of the ideas of Web 2.0 already featured on networked systems well before the term "Web 2.0" emerged. Amazon.com, for instance, has allowed users to write reviews and consumer guides since its launch in 1995, in a form of self-publishing. Amazon also opened its API to outside developers in 2002.[12] Previous developments also came from research in computer-supported collaborative learning and computer-supported cooperative work and from established products like Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino.
Conversely, when a website is proclaimed "Web 2.0" for the use of some trivial feature (such as blogs or gradient-boxes) observers may generally consider it more an attempt at promotion than an actual endorsement of the ideas behind Web 2.0. "Web 2.0" in such circumstances has sometimes sunk simply to the status of a marketing buzzword, like "synergy," that can mean whatever a salesperson wants it to mean, with little connection to most of the worthy but (currently) unrelated ideas originally brought together under the "Web 2.0" banner.
The argument also exists that "Web 2.0" does not represent a new version of World Wide Web at all, but merely continues to use "Web 1.0" technologies and concepts. Note that techniques such as AJAX do not replace underlying protocols like HTTP, but add an additional layer of abstraction on top of them.
Other criticism has included the term "a second bubble," (referring to the Dot-com bubble of circa 1995–2001), suggesting that too many Web 2.0 companies attempt to develop the same product with a lack of business models. The Economist has written of "Bubble 2.0."
Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman noted that Web 2.0 excited only 53,651 people (the number of subscribers to TechCrunch, a Weblog covering Web 2.0 matters), too few users to make them an economically-viable target for consumer applications.
Source: Wikipedia and other websites.....
A second phase in the evolution of the World Wide Web where developers use new technologies to create websites that look and act like desktop programs and encourage collaboration and communication between users. Blogs, E-Mail Newsletters and RSS Feeds are just a few of the new technologies Web 2.0 technology offers.
· a resurgence in the web economy · a new level of technological interactivity between web sites and services or social phenomena deriving from new types of online communities and social networks
Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2003 and popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004, refers to a perceived second-generation of Web based communities and hosted services such as social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O'Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.
Though the term suggests a new version of the Web, it does not refer to an update to World Wide Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways systems developers have used the web platform. According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the beginnings of the World Wide Web.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Characteristics of "Web 2.0"
3 Technology overview
4 Innovations associated with "Web 2.0"
4.1 Web-based applications and desktops
4.2 Rich Internet applications
4.2.1 Server-side software
4.2.2 Client-side software
4.3 XML and RSS
4.3.1 Specialized protocols
4.4 Web protocols
5 Web 2.0 and Language Learning Technologies
6 Criticism
Introduction
The phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web; advocates suggest that technologies such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, Web APIs, Web standards and online Web services imply a significant change in web usage.
As used by its supporters, the phrase "Web 2.0" can also refer to one or more of the following:
The transition of web sites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming computing platforms serving web applications to end-users
A social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and "the market as a conversation"
Enhanced organization and categorization of content, emphasizing deep linking
A rise in the economic value of the Web, possibly surpassing the impact of the dot-com boom of the late 1990s
Earlier users of the phrase "Web 2.0" employed it as a synonym for "Semantic Web", and the two concepts do complement each other. The combination of social-networking systems such as FOAF and XFN with the development of tag-based folksonomies, delivered through blogs and wikis, sets up a basis for a semantic web environment.
Tim O'Reilly regards Web 2.0 as business embracing the web as a platform and utilising its strengths (global audiences, for example). O'Reilly considers that Eric Schmidt's abridged slogan, don't fight the Internet, encompasses the essence of Web 2.0 — building applications and services around the unique features of the Internet, as opposed to building applications and expecting the Internet to suit as a platform (effectively "fighting the Internet").
On September 30, 2005, Tim O'Reilly wrote a piece summarizing the subject. The mind-map pictured above (constructed by Markus Angermeier [5] on November 11, 2005) sums up the memes of Web 2.0, with example-sites and services attached.In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle summarized what they saw as key principles of Web 2.0 applications:
the web as a platform
data as the driving force
network effects created by an architecture of participation
innovation in assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development)
lightweight business models enabled by content and service syndication
the end of the software adoption cycle ("the perpetual beta")
software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of The Long Tail. ease of picking-up by early adopters
Tim O'Reilly gave examples of companies or products that embody these principles in his description of his "four plus one" levels in the hierarchy of Web 2.0-ness:
Level 3 applications, the most "Web 2.0," which could only exist on the Internet, deriving their power from the human connections and network effects that Web 2.0 makes possible, and growing in effectiveness the more people use them. O'Reilly gives as examples: eBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, dodgeball, WorkACE and Adsense. Level 2 applications, which can operate offline but which gain advantages from going online. O'Reilly cited Flickr, which benefits from its shared photo-database and from its community-generated tag database. Level 1 applications, also available offline but which gain features online. O'Reilly pointed to Writely (since 10 October 2006: Google Docs & Spreadsheets, offering group-editing capability online) and iTunes (because of its music-store portion). Level 0 applications would work as well offline. O'Reilly gave the examples of MapQuest, Yahoo! Local, and Google Maps. Mapping applications using contributions from users to advantage can rank as "level 2". Non-web applications like email, instant-messaging clients and the telephone.
Characteristics of "Web 2.0"
This section overlaps with other sections; it should be combined with the rest of the article.
While interested parties continue to debate the definition of a Web 2.0 application, a Web 2.0 web-site may exhibit some basic common characteristics.
These might include:
"Network as platform" — delivering (and allowing users to use) applications entirely through a browser. Users owning the data on the site and exercising control over the data. An architecture of participation that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.This stands in sharp contrast to hierarchical access-control in applications, in which systems categorize users into roles with varying levels of functionality. A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks. Some social-networking aspects. Enhanced graphical interfaces such as gradients and rounded corners (absent in the so-called Web 1.0 era). The impossibility of excluding group-members who don’t contribute to the provision of goods from sharing profits gives rise to the possibility that rational members will prefer to withhold their contribution of effort and free-ride on the contribution of others.
The concept of Web-as-participation-platform captures many of these characteristics. Bart Decrem, founder and former CEO of Flock, calls Web 2.0 the "participatory Web" and regards Web-as-information-source as Web 1.0.
Technology overview
The complex and evolving technology infrastructure of Web 2.0 includes server-software, content-syndication, messaging-protocols, standards-based browsers with plugins and extensions, and various client-applications. These differing but complementary approaches provide Web 2.0 with information-storage, creation, and dissemination capabilities that go beyond what the public formerly expected of websites.
A Web 2.0 website may typically feature a number of the following techniques:
Rich Internet application techniques, optionally Ajax-based CSS
Semantically valid XHTML markup and the use of Microformats
Syndication and aggregation of data in RSS/Atom
Clean and meaningful URLs
Extensive use of folksonomies (in the form of tags or tagclouds, for example)
Use of wiki software either completely or partially (where partial use may grow to become the complete platform for the site)
Use of Open source software either completely or partially, such as the LAMP solution stack XACML over SOAP for access control between organisations and domains
Weblog publishing
Mashups
REST or XML Webservice APIs
Innovations associated with "Web 2.0"
Web-based applications and desktops
The richer user-experience afforded by Ajax has prompted the development of web-sites that mimic personal computer applications, such as word processing, the spreadsheet, and slide-show presentation. WYSIWYG wiki sites replicate many features of PC authoring applications. Still other sites perform collaboration and project management functions. In 2006 Google, Inc. acquired one of the best-known sites of this broad class, Writely.
Several browser-based "operating systems" or "online desktops" have also appeared. They essentially function as application platforms, not as operating systems per se. These services mimic the user experience of desktop operating-systems, offering features and applications similar to a PC environment. They have as their distinguishing characteristic the ability to run within any modern browser.
Numerous web based application services appeared during the dot-com bubble of 1997–2001 and then vanished, having failed to gain a critical mass of customers. In 2005 WebEx acquired one of the better-known of these, Intranets.com, for slightly more than the total it had raised in venture capital after six years of trading.
Rich Internet applications
Main article: Rich Internet applicationRecently, rich-Internet application techniques such as Ajax, Adobe Flash, Flex, Nexaweb, OpenLaszlo and Silverlight have evolved that can improve the user-experience in browser-based applications. These technologies allow a web-page to request an update for some part of its content, and to alter that part in the browser, without needing to refresh the whole page at the same time.
Server-side software
The functionality of Web 2.0 applications builds on the existing Web server architecture, but relies much more heavily on back-end software. Syndication differs only nominally from the methods of publishing using dynamic content management, but web services typically require much more robust database and workflow support, and become very similar to the traditional intranet functionality of an application server. Vendor approaches to date fall either under a universal server approach (which bundles most of the necessary functionality in a single server platform) or under a web-server plugin approach (which uses standard publishing tools enhanced with API interfaces and other tools).
Client-side software
The extra functionality provided by Web 2.0 depends on the ability of users to work with the data stored on servers. This can come about through forms in an HTML page, through a scripting language such as Javascript, or through Flash, Silverlight or Java. These methods all make use of the client computer to reduce server workloads and to increase the responsiveness of the application.
XML and RSS
Advocates of Web 2.0 may regard syndication of site content as a Web 2.0 feature, involving as it does standardized protocols which permit end-users to make use of a site's data in another context (such as another web-site, a browser plugin, or a separate desktop application). Protocols which permit syndication include RSS (Really Simple Syndication — also known as "web syndication"), RDF (as in RSS 1.1), and Atom, all of them XML-based formats. Increasingly, these technologies are becoming known as Web feed as the usability of Web 2.0 evolves and the RSS icon replaced by the more user-friendly Feeds icon.
Specialized protocols
Specialized protocols such as FOAF and XFN (both for social networking) extend the functionality of sites or permit end-users to interact without centralized web-sites. (See microformats for more specialized data formats.)
Web protocols
Web communication protocols support the Web 2.0 infrastructure. Major protocols include REST and SOAP.
REST (Representational State Transfer) indicates a way to access and manipulate data on a server using the HTTP verbs GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE
SOAP involves POSTing XML messages and requests to a server that may contain quite complex, but pre-defined, instructions for the server to follow In both cases, an API defines access to the service. Often servers use proprietary APIs, but standard web-service APIs (for example, for posting to a blog) have also come into wide use. Most (but not all) communications with web services involve some form of XML (eXtensible Markup Language).
Web 2.0 and Language Learning Technologies
In second language learning, Web 2.0 technologies have been described as new and emerging technologies. Technologies such as on-demand video, file sharing, blogs, wikis, and podcasting have become very popular with language educators and students. Users of these technologies have emphasised their collaborative and community-building aspects, and suggested they are a natural ally for a constructivist learning methodology. A number of events sposored by the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG in the UK, Japan and India have focused on the use of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance language learning environments.
Criticism
Given the lack of set standards as to what "Web 2.0" actually means, implies, or requires, the term can mean radically different things to different people.
Many of the ideas of Web 2.0 already featured on networked systems well before the term "Web 2.0" emerged. Amazon.com, for instance, has allowed users to write reviews and consumer guides since its launch in 1995, in a form of self-publishing. Amazon also opened its API to outside developers in 2002.[12] Previous developments also came from research in computer-supported collaborative learning and computer-supported cooperative work and from established products like Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino.
Conversely, when a website is proclaimed "Web 2.0" for the use of some trivial feature (such as blogs or gradient-boxes) observers may generally consider it more an attempt at promotion than an actual endorsement of the ideas behind Web 2.0. "Web 2.0" in such circumstances has sometimes sunk simply to the status of a marketing buzzword, like "synergy," that can mean whatever a salesperson wants it to mean, with little connection to most of the worthy but (currently) unrelated ideas originally brought together under the "Web 2.0" banner.
The argument also exists that "Web 2.0" does not represent a new version of World Wide Web at all, but merely continues to use "Web 1.0" technologies and concepts. Note that techniques such as AJAX do not replace underlying protocols like HTTP, but add an additional layer of abstraction on top of them.
Other criticism has included the term "a second bubble," (referring to the Dot-com bubble of circa 1995–2001), suggesting that too many Web 2.0 companies attempt to develop the same product with a lack of business models. The Economist has written of "Bubble 2.0."
Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman noted that Web 2.0 excited only 53,651 people (the number of subscribers to TechCrunch, a Weblog covering Web 2.0 matters), too few users to make them an economically-viable target for consumer applications.
Source: Wikipedia and other websites.....
Kreedam - The real Crown for "Thala" Ajith
Ajith is considered a King of Collections for his fans have turned up in large numbers for his movies' opening.
Kireedam is no different. The movie on Friday opened to full houses all across the State.
Fans thronged in large numbers early in the morning and it was celebration time at all the screens.
Special poojas were also held for the movie to succeed in several theatres. Kireedam starring Ajith, Trisha and Raj Kiran is directed by A L Vijay and is produced by Suresh Balaje and Adlabs.
A mix of action, humor and romance, the movie has managed to win positive reviews. The beginning looks brighter for Kireedam.
According to the director, “The early reports are encouraging. Audiences have ensured full houses even in interior parts of the State. I am thankful to my co-stars, my technicians and above all the masses for the grand successes”.
Source: India Glitz
Ajith has once again rised like a pheonix bird. No one can stop him hereafer.
Kireedam is no different. The movie on Friday opened to full houses all across the State.
Fans thronged in large numbers early in the morning and it was celebration time at all the screens.
Special poojas were also held for the movie to succeed in several theatres. Kireedam starring Ajith, Trisha and Raj Kiran is directed by A L Vijay and is produced by Suresh Balaje and Adlabs.
A mix of action, humor and romance, the movie has managed to win positive reviews. The beginning looks brighter for Kireedam.
According to the director, “The early reports are encouraging. Audiences have ensured full houses even in interior parts of the State. I am thankful to my co-stars, my technicians and above all the masses for the grand successes”.
Source: India Glitz
Ajith has once again rised like a pheonix bird. No one can stop him hereafer.
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