The term “Web2.0” is something of a misnomer. Although it represents the shift from HTML to the more content-oriented structure of XML , more importantly, it signifies the changing attitudes and improved knowledge sharing of today’s society.

Recently the Internet has been undergoing a process of Darwinian evolution. However, at its core, is not the survival of the fittest, but rather, survival of the most accessible and integrated. One of the effects of this evolution, apart from creating vast knowledge-communities, is what can only be described as a more automated web. The benefits of this advancement are immediately apparent to anyone who has ever used an RSS feed.

In 1957 Marshall McLuhan wrote:

“As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of ‘do it yourself.’”

McLuhan’s theories suggest that an automated age promotes an increasingly “do it yourself” culture, one in which participants, through their active involvement, become experts.

In his book “ The Gutenberg Galaxy ,” McLuhan states that all technology is an extension of the human body and the human sensory experience. Just as the wheel is an extension of the foot, and the map is an extension of our visual-spatial perception, Web2.0 environments are also extensions of ourselves. In all of its XML glory Web2.0 is an extension of our “knowledge” hunting-and-gathering abilities. It allows us faster, more automated access to information. Also, our own content can be communicated and indexed with greater speed and automation.

This automation, at first glance, may seem antithetic to the previously mentioned concept of “do it yourself.” However, the automation of the Internet has allowed scores of individuals, who may have lacked the technical ability to code in HTML, to begin engaging in knowledge-sharing via the Internet.

Michael Wesch , assistant-professor at Kansas State University explores this evolution in his video “The Web is Us/ing Us .” He unearths the code structure of the Internet, as an archaeologist might dig for relics and fossils. Wesch explores some of the differences between HTML and XML, primarily XML’s ability to allow the user to focus on content rather than formatting. As a result, information can be easily transferred, indexed and automated.

Wesch’s video further investigates the benefits of Web2.0 by demonstrating the ease with which users can create blogs and begin adding their own content. He also points out that, on average, a blog is born every 30 seconds. With that kind of proliferation, it is no surprise that traditional media outlets view blogging as both a challenge and an opportunity.

Indeed, the “do it yourself” culture of the blog and Web2.0 has pervaded our traditional media outlets: television, radio, as well as the advertising and entrepreneurial sectors are attempting to take part in this evolution. In regards to television news programs, blogs and other viewer-submitted media are often highlighted alongside traditional content, such as in the “iReporters ” segments on CNN. However, how much of this is a gimmicky and vain attempt at infiltrating the lucrative phenomenon of “do it yourself?” How much of it is a sincere commitment to branching out and creating communities of inclusivity? “Do it yourself” culture, by its very nature, should resist being sucked into the vacuum of traditional media. Despite the problematic relationship with traditional media, blogging and Web2.0 are signs of a more integrated, and automated knowledge culture.

photo credit: libraryman