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Are you following a yellow brick road?

In a slight change to the BIALL Conference programme Parallel Session 3/4 is now called "Web 2.0: the Yellow Brick Road or Fool's Gold? An Interactive Panel Discussion" ever the opportunist the BIALL Blogger contacted the speakers (Sue Hill (SH) and Martin de Saulles (MS) for their thoughts on Web 2.0 and its impact on Legal Information Professionals:

First off, Web 2.0, does it really exist or is it a meaningless term? On the basis that it does exist, how would you describe it?

SH - I certainly hope so - as I have paid for lots of courses/seminars/etc for staff to go and learn more about it! I dont think it is meaningless in that is says it is web - moved on. Web 2.0 is a bit overkill - Web 2 probably w ould have done!

MS - Although it is an over-used term I think it is useful as it provides a hook to hang some of the most important Web developments from the last several years. I would describe it as Web-based services that offer a level of interactivity for information sharing and collaboration that we did not see in the early Web.

How is Web 2.0 different from Web 1.0?

SH - I would call Web 1.0 flat or static (which is funny - when we all thought hyperlinked data was the be all and end all) and Web 2.0 more 'interactive', flowing. Web 1.0 was 'theirs' (whoever 'they' are) and Web 2.0 is 'ours'.

MS - It allows users to interact with the Web and with others via the Web rather than the less dynamic and more static Web 1.0. One way to think about Web 2.0 is that the Web is becoming a platform for delivering applications and services rather than just information.

As Information Professionals if our users are using Web 2.0 applications, shouldn't we also be using them and offering them to our users?

SH - Without doubt, but this is where the huge question mark starts. I think often the responsibility goes far beyond that info pro - - although they should be advising the higher ups...... a lot of large orgs with heritage systems (and perhaps not much £££s) are finding it hard to adapt and go with Web 2.0 and wouldn't listen to their info people anyway. The IT and Security people will be standing there wagging their fingers.

MS - If Web 2.0 applications allow us to better serve our users and our users are comfortable with them then yes we should be using them. Ignoring them would be like trying to pretend the Web was not important in the late 1990s.

Are Web 2.0 applications making the Web more open or less secure?

SH - I am astounded how carelessly people will fill in 'stuff' that you need to be Facebooked - Linked-In, Myspaced etc....(My solution is to have a fake DoB, fake Place of Birth, Fake mother and an email that is for those things only - not to mention a heavily re-touched photograph - but it isnt fool proof)

MS - This requires a longer and more complex answer than I can give here but I would say that one of the hottest topics for the near future will be security in terms of knowing who has access to personal data about us and what we do on the Web. There is a lot of ignorance about the trails of personal data we are leaving on sites such as Facebook, Linkedin etc

What are some of the challenges associated with using Web 2.0 and what do you see as the biggest opportunity?

SH - I think one of the challenges is finding the ability to step back, see the big picture and then plan, design, implement as it develops rather than trying to play catch up or stay static

MS - One of the key challenges is knowing which new services/technologies have a future and are worth using. Most of us are too busy to spend much time evaluating the latest developments and there is a need for more guidance as to what services are best for specific purposes. One of the biggest opportunities is in the area of data combining/ mashups. XML, RSS, open APIs and other common formats are allowing the development of exciting new services and the barriers to entry are relatively low (at the moment).

Web 2.0 can only make us more productive or can it! What are your thoughts on Web 2.0 tools being disruptive rather then productive?

SH - I saw an excellent presentation at the Perfect Information Conference by two Cisco employees and they showed how in practical use within their organisation they had gone from top down percolation and rigid implementation to upward and parallel flowing usage. Initially a source of concern re potential disruption they had gone past that barrier and were now finding it an immense time and £££s saver. It fitted in with a lot of their strategy to be more co-operative, green, etc.

MS - This is a good question ? following my previous point I think they can be disruptive when people spend too much time experimenting with them rather than getting on with their day job (I sometimes fall into that trap). I think this will change over the coming years as certain services/platforms start to dominate and organisations and individuals learn to get the most from them. A suitable analogy may be the dominance of Microsoft Office in the PC application sector. In the early 1990s several competing word processing applications dominated the market and I remember seeing adverts for Wordstar operators that offered quite high salaries. Now it is taken for granted that anyone working in an administrative role will have MS Office skills and can use a Web browser.

What do you see being the next "big thing" will Web 2.0 really take off? or will something else take its place?

SH - Web 3.0/4.0/5.0 potentially will just be faster, smarter more of the same.....
Web 2.0 is here potentially because of the momentum of Web 1.0
I bit like 'google' I find it hard to think that anything outside of the box will come and along and take over.....

MS - I think the term Web 2.0 will disappear over the next 12 months. Some people talk about Web 3.0 but it sounds a bit clichéd even before it has even gone mainstream. However, I do think the basics of what Web 2.0 is about will take off in the sense that many of the services we think of as innovative now will be used by the masses within several years. Applications are moving to the Internet cloud and it will soon seem rather old fashioned to have a PC with applications such as MS Office loaded on to it. You only have to look at services such as Google Docs and Google Sites to see where it is going.

Finally do you Web 2.0?

SH - Yes in a quiet way on a personal basis and we are looking at ways in which it can securely be implemented into recruitment processes. Hog tied by legislation and new but none the less legacy software.

MS - Yes. As a lot of my teaching and research is centred around this area, I need to play around with it to see what works and what doesn?t. Over the last several years I have been incorporating more Web 2.0 services into my daily work.

Thanks to both Sue and Martin in preparing answers to our questions in advance of their session, it sounds like it should be a very interesting discussion.

Full post as published by The BIALL Blog on May 28, 2008 (boomark / email).