Participation Literacy Part I: Constructing the Web 2.0 Concept

Abstract: The licentiate thesis is a piece of academic work under the theme of /Participation Literacy/. The thesis concerns the Web 2.0 concept construction. Web 2.0 is a new mind-set on the Internet. The main characteristics include ”Web as a Platform”, Collective Intelligence, Folksonomy and interfaces build with lightweight technologies such as Ajax. Web 2.0 is not only a technique, but also an ideology – an ideology of participation. A Web 2.0 service is completely web based and generally draws on open access. It includes tools for people to interact within areas such as encyclopaedias, bookmarks, photos, books or research articles. All Web 2.0 services are web communities. A web community is a group of individuals, linked together by a network of social relations with some degree of continu¬ity. Community members learn from each other and the knowledge base of the community grows for every interaction. The core values of Web 2.0 are democracy and participation. The licentiate thesis is divided into four main parts and two appendixes. The four parts constitute a foreword, a reading guide, a conceptual and empirical introductory discussion to the Web 2.0 concept; finally a series of constructions based on the Web 2.0 concept and the cyborg figure. Appendix I is a short conference paper called Technologically Navigating Cyborgs. Appendix II is a very short piece of fiction, written in Swedish. These appendixes comprise a background to the focus on the Web 2.0 and the cyborg concept.