1b: Professional Communication Technologies

Being a part of a generation that uses the phrase "google it" for the explanation of practically anything I am all too aware of the ever developing cyber world we have become to find indispensable. As an avid and relatively well informed user of social networking sites for personal use, however, I had no idea of the versatility these sites could be used for from personal to professional publications. In particular the evolution of what I now know from Web 1.0 to 2.0 discussed in Reader 1.

The sheer fact that global communication can be achieved at the mere touch of a button on a mobile phone is a pretty amazing thought and the improvement of these technologies are still moving at a pace that the average public member will struggle to be able to keep up with.

I am particularly interested in the massive change that has occurred between Web 1.0 and 2.0 in the fact that, just as I am with this very blog, anyone can now publish their own work easily and efficiently (and even better for free!). The days of being limited to education without participation on the web are far behind us and now the joining of public thoughts and opinions through the internet opens up great possibilities in the growth of our society. The concept behind the improvement in Web 2.0 is shown diagrammatically in Tim O'Reilly's article "What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns And Business Models For The Next Generation Of Software" (2006) making the concept a little easier to grasp:

This "meme" shows that the aims behind Web 2.0 is to enable all who use the internet to publish, share, comment and interact with all types of information through sources such as youtube, blogger, google+ and flickr (all programmes that I have so far newly explored within the BAPP course) in order to improve our personal or professional needs.

I particularly enjoyed the quote that describes Web 2.0 as a "Social space for people, strangers and almost strangers with diverse backgrounds to come together as equals, as generators of ideas, to deliberate and act collectively" (Feenberg & Bakardjieva 2004). I feel a strong connection between this quote and how Web 2.0 has and will improve my career as a dancer. Quite recently a campaign was started for members of the performing world to protest against the unjust payment dancers were being offered for their work. An article was published on Facebook describing a situation where this had happened and in turn directed us to an online petition to show our collective anger. A fine example of how Web 2.0 can bring together the masses of dancers, being strangers, and form a strong, equally opinionated network.

Networking, in the terms of simply advertising yourself to possible employers has become much easier through the web. Dancing companies being all over the world and restriction of funds not enabling me to necessarily travel for auditions would have hindered my capabilities if it wasn't for video auditions, sent via youtube, which wouldn't have been possible with Web 1.0. 

Although the opportunities that come with Web 2.0 seem to weigh more beneficial than not, it is important to remember that sharing large amounts of information, or publishing your opinions on a worldwide public domain comes with a large amount of responsibility and risk if abused. Being sure to keep confidential information about yourself or your workplace is of high importance, such as the contact details on my CV that I blanked on my blog as well as any mention of establishments that would be wise to be left anonymous when publishing personal opinions or anecdotes. Remembering of course that you can never be certain who may be reading and whether it could affect your present or unforeseen future. In terms of our blogs, we are able to write about what we wish but I am of the opinion that any negativity or anger should be kept off public forums and left to the security of a personal journal. It is helpful however that many websites, such as facebook, give the user the option of privatizing within it to suit the our needs. 

Overall I am of the opinion that without the development of Web 2.0, the internet would not be as necessary to our lives (or mine in particular) for my educational, personal and professional needs and if continued to be used correctly and wisely will be a cyber relationship that will only grow with my further learning of its possibilities throughout this course.