Jen Krall MANA 124 Dr. Ow Web 2.0 Web 2.0 The technological advancements that the world has been experiencing over the past few years continue to open up new doors that allow businesses to work faster and more efficiently than ever before. We can give credit to Web 2.0 for a lot of the advancement that we have been seeing. Before the dot-com bubble burst, the web was controlled by the organizations themselves, and now with Web 2.0, the control of information is being shifted to the individuals. This decentralization of information lets system users become contributors; the best example being blogging. What used to be individual web-pages that individuals visited is now an interactive environment where one person writes about a topic and other readers are able to leave their input on it as well. The old days of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) have passed and companies are moving towards web-oriented architecture (WOA). On ZDNet.com, blogger Dion Hinchcliffe refers to this change from SOA to WOA as “not a competition; an evolution of focus” (1). SOA’s are simply not cutting it anymore for organizations. What used to be the most common approach for enterprises to create networks for the IT systems is quickly losing its steam. The restrictions of using this architecture are turning off companies, who are now looking for flexibility, user participation and widespread distribution for their systems. They can find most of those attributes in Web 2.0 models. Currently, companies who are using SOA’s have been able to make their IT systems shareable, rewirable, dynamic, and integrated, helping them create an intertwined network that helps make their old way of doing business easier and much more efficient (2). While it has helped companies become more integrated, there are still restraints associated with this Service-Oriented Architecture. The structure holds onto a hierarchical structure that uses top-level organizing principles, and overall the SOA’s have not been living up to what most businesses thought it would provide them. Luckily,
Krall 2 companies have another option that will help companies accomplish what they thought SOA’s would. This is where Web 2.0 comes in. Now companies not only have their own network, they have a weboriented architecture that values a more social approach that also “involves in its own way the turning of applications into platforms that can be reused, shared, and aggregated” (3). However, moving from the previous structure to the newer Web 2.0 is no simple task. The change requires a shift in control from the center of the network to the edge, entrusting the millions of web users with important properties; in exchange for a significant increase in available information. To do this successfully is not at all a simple task. The switch requires a transition from ground rules that have been in place for many years to a completely different model that is not exactly guaranteed to work successfully with current applications. Businesses need to carry out a pilot to try out the new approach and find out how it works. While this is necessary for implementing any new product, Hinchcliffe comments that those small changes are not what will help businesses obtain that competitive edge they want. Companies will inevitably need to completely transform their current strategies and embrace the changes that are occurring. Also, implementing Web 2.0 for a business is not always something that needs to be put into practice. The addition may actually create more problems. Hinchcliffe adds a comment made by Nicholas Carr to his article, Carr says that Web 2.0 helps “but only if you assume that Web 2.0 collaboration tools, like wikis and tagging, will actually pay off within businesses in a broad and substantial way. There are, as I wrote previously, reasons for caution here. If Web 2.0 technologies fail to fulfill the promises being made for them, they could end up slowing rather than accelerating the transition to the next generation of business software” (2). Just like what happened when SOA came onto the scene, Web 2.0 has been expected to make business related information easier to work with. But just like all new technologies, there are problems that still need to be worked out. Companies need
Krall 3 to look deeper into Web 2.0 and find out what the nature of the beast is as well as what capabilities will come from implementing this new web oriented architecture. While there may be some problems with Web 2.0, it is not a deterrent, or even slowing down the innovation timeline. It is a disruptive technology. You Tube , Flickr, Facebook and countless others have implemented this approach through trial and error, but it continues to improve each and every day it is being used. Of course there are problems initially, but that happens with all new technologies. People are inherently risk averse and want to avoid new technology like the plague. In the end though, once all the kinks are worked out of the system, the new and scary approach can greatly improve a business. Sure, companies can continue using their service-oriented architectures, but those who do will quickly begin to fall behind their competition. In the end, there will be no way of avoiding this shift in technology, the whole world is becoming more web oriented and avoiding this change will only lead to failure. Just like Henry Ford with his Model T, at the time of his innovative mode of transportation, he reaped the benefits of his work. But, as others started to jump on the bandwagon, his incredible invention turned into a thing of the past, and his unwillingness to change with the times ended up working against him. Just like Ford, if companies aren’t willing to adapt to this new web oriented approach to business, their futures may be shorter than expected. Even with the uncertainties that may come with the new Web 2.0, the change will be advantageous, in the long-run, to most of the businesses that choose to implement the new approach.
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Works Cited 1. Hinchcliffe, Dion. "The WOA story emerges as better outcomes sought for SOA." Weblog post. Enterprise Web 2.0. 6 Sept. 2008. 23 Sept. 2008 . 2. “When the Worlds of SOA and Web 2.0 Collide” 26 Apr. 2006. 23 Sept. 2008 “A Checkpoint on Web 2.0 in the enterprise” 26 July 2007. 23 Sept. 2008 “Web 2.0 success stories driving WOA and informing SOA” 17 Apr. 2008. 23 Sept. 2008
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