Introduction -- Let's get started

The term Web 2.0 was coined with idea that the World Wide Web has grown up and spawned itself into a second generation. The first generation, as vast as it was, had content created by web masters with required programming skills (i.e. HTML, JAVA) to post content on servers owned and operated by their organization (i.e. school district, companies). This second generation of the World Wide Web has grown and rendered applications and services such that anyone with basic computer skills and internet access can contribute to the content of the Internet. Barrier to entry is generally free. No server ownership and maintenance required. Webmasters are now a small percentage of folks that maintain web content.
I suggest one look at the wikipedia definition. It travels well beyond my short explanation.
In general, you will find that any Web 2.0 application is strictly browser based -- i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla. In some cases browser plug-ins or a separate downloaded application may be needed for better functionality. Google's Picasa is an example of this. One can easily upload and manage picture albums with a web browser, but there are a couple additional free downloads, Picasa Uploader, Picasa, which improve the uploading experience and give one photo editing capability respectively.
In general, your work/pictures/data is stored “in the cloud” -- a term used that means on a server not owned and managed by you or someone in your organization. Your access requires a URL, User ID and password. Much of the time you do not need your own computer to have this access. Again it depends on the apps and plug-ins needed. And, conveniently, your own computer probably remembers the access information, as (like myself) one cannot remember the vast number of UID's and passwords for all these applications.

So with this definition, and knowing that there is a vast amount of Web 2.0 applications and content, where does one begin. Participation is a great beginning. We certainly can surf around the web and find this kind of content and read it and learn from it, but then we really would continue to be Web 1.0 participants. It would be the equivalent of sitting in the stands at a professional baseball game without ever really swinging a bat, catching a ball, and understanding the rules for participation. So in brief, a goal of this course will be to pick up a bat and start swinging -- to give one an appreciation of the game. A more directly stated goal will be to use wiki's and blogs to learn about wiki's and blogs.

We will start slowly and progress at a pace that will most likely be adjusted through the length of the course work. Navigate back the the wiki that will be serve as the hub of this course work.