Last time we discussed the main features of Web 2.0 and issues associated with using it and contributing to its content. This week’s lecture shed light on how Web 2.0 is rendered practical.
Web service is a type of API. Web services are the technical infrastructure which ensures Web 2.0 usability. To provide flexible and permanently evolving content, servers send information to clients which the latter read, process and personalise for users’ information needs. They serve as an intermediary between complex services on the internet and users.
In the Web 2.0 environment, there is no need to purchase software as in good old times. Still can’t believe how much I used to pay for a piece of software. The software stored on the internet has a proprietary status. The data sent from users’ computers is processed by the software sitting on the remote machines on a pay per usage basis. The idea of having nothing on one’s hard drive is taken even further by the concept of cloud computing which allows users to access and manage data stored on the internet. Personally, I do have some issues with it. How is the privacy/control ensured? What happens if servers are shut down, confiscated, hacked, sold etc? For instance, Google must disclose users’ personal information without notifying them if subpoenaed by the US government.
XML (standing for eXtensible Markup Language) is a set of conventions used to create a language which can communicate any data in any form between machines. It does contain tags and attributes as HTML but those are created by users in order to convey and contain the information required.
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) provide the user-friendly interfaces that conceal the complexity of the data storage and management from users. They allow users to build their own systems. A mashup is widely used to create new user-oriented content and services by combining information from different Web services and APIs.
At the lab we had the opportunity to create our own mashup web page.
The first task was to create a static map with several location markers on it using Google API. The process consisted of copying and pasting the adequate strings of HTML to my HTML document and putting exact geographical coordinates for the location I wanted to mark. In the second task I created a “LIKE” button by embedding in my mashup web document a string of HTML generated for me by Facebook web service. For the third task I used the web service provided by Twitter to create a Twitter update feed on my web page. By the end of the session I managed to produce a basic mashup page, where various external resources were combined in order to make a page’s content versatile, interactive and informative.
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