Cross posted at websg
I came across details of a presentation in a recent Singapore Conference called “Website & Content Management Strategies”, organised by Asia Business Forum (www.abf-asia.com):
Case Study Presentation on Proven Content Management Strategies that can be used to effectively build and operate a web 2.0 portal Discover the special techniques that were used by NCS Portal City to build and operate an innovative Web 2.0 internet portal that is highly efficient and scalable, supporting collaborative content and mobile access. Learn about the opportunities for mashing commercial, lifestyle and government services together to deliver a seamless experience that constantly engages the customer
Lucian pointed me to this URL as the case study site: http://www.portalcity.com.sg/
Now, before all your web trendy people start ROFL-ing, please do note that site is still under construction - at least for public viewing. The point of highlighting this presentation is just to show how web 2.0 seems to have lost all its relevance and has become just another Jargon.
Is this Web 2.0
Looking at the “under construction” site, it is a glaring give away how not-web 2.0 it is.
NCS is not a company that is in the radar of companies that do Web 2.0 or talk about Web 2.0. IBM, not surprisingly, is. Which is why, it is a pleasant surprise to see NCS talk about Web2.0. Nevertheless, I think they have got the jargon/Web2.0 movement wrong.
Web 2.0 is about all these:
- Design
- Technology
- Business Model
Business Model
One of the good things about web 2.0 (which Nat Tokington highlighted at Nexus) is how fast and quick you can get it up and change it if need be. And how quickly you can get to your customers as well as get their feedback. Frankly, you wont see any web2.0 sites that are “under construction”. Any portal that claims to be web 2.0 are either in “beta” or “live” - spending not more than 6 months in “beta” stage (gmail is an exception! :) ).
Technology
Web 2.0 is not just ajax. Ajax is one of the technologies that spearheaded web 2.0 adoption - just like Ruby on Rails.
Web 2.0 is not about “mashing”. In the description above, the sentence “Learn about the opportunities for mashing commercial, lifestyle and government services together to deliver a seamless experience that constantly engages the customer” frankly makes no sense. As far as I know, Singapore government offers no XML feeds (except perhaps the Health Promotion Board? let alone APIs). So, the concept of “mashing” doesnt even exist. Web 2.0 is about providing services that enable people to come up with new ones. For e.g. Basecamp, Flickr, del.icio.us, twitter, etc offer APIs which result in pretty creative services like: FlickrFS, twittervision etc. These create the “buzz” around the web 2.0 technology while simultaneously creating a community for adoption.
Ajax is not just javascript. I see a lot of websites that scream “web 2.0” with just some fancy javascript effects. Ajax has always had XMLHttpRequest component that has been fundamental to the power of Ajax. Without that, there is technically, no Ajax.
Web 2.0 is not flash. But web 2.0 is definitely not about using flash to dish up the portal/apps. It has been done before, and they never picked up steam. Portal City, at least its “under construction” page, seems to be using flash with some links to government sites. First, they are not accessible, second, they are definitely not web 2.0.
Design
Web 2.0 is also about web standards. Web 2.0 portals should adopt web standards, accessibility, and usability techniques that work - including design of their portals. Complying with web standards is one of them. In the case of the Portal City, it is obvious that none of these apply.
Web 2.0 is about designs that speak of innovation. Now, there is nothing wrong with the NCS portal city page except it doesn’t speak anywhere of something new and progressive. It doesn’t have a vibrant, innovative feel and looks like any 90s site (except with a trendier flash presentation). For e.g. IBM is a portal that doesnt say it is “Web 2.0” - even though they do incorporate web 2.0 technology - neither does it want to be. But for any site that does want to be known as “web 2.0” - then it is time to freshen up the designs.
For Singapore examples of Web 2.0 portals we needn’t look any further than bookjetty or Shared Copy. Perhaps Herry is the best person to talk about developing a massive portal that uses web 2.0 contructively.
Technorati Tags: web 2.0, web standards, singapore