Web 2.0 is a highly accessible introductory text examining all the crucial discussions and issues which surround the changing nature of the World Wide Web. It not only contextualises the Web 2.0 within the history of the Web, but also goes on to explore its position within the broader dispositif of emerging media technologies.

The book uncovers the connections between diverse media technologies including mobile smart phones, hand-held multimedia players, "netbooks" and electronic book readers such as the Amazon Kindle, all of which are made possible only by the Web 2.0. In addition, Web 2.0 makes a valuable contribution towards understanding the new developments in mobile computing as it integrates various aspects of social networking, whilst also tackling head-on the recent controversial debates that have arisen in a backlash to the Web 2.0.

Providing valuable insight into this emerging area of the World Wide Web, Web 2.0 is a key supplementary text for undergraduate students of media studies, sociology, philosophy and other related disciplines, as well as being an informative read for anyone with an interest in this key contemporary issue.

Contents

Introduction Remediation or Convergence?: Media and Technology in the Information Age 1. What is the 'Web' in Web 2.0?: A Short History of the Web 2. What is the '2.0' in Web 2.0? 3. New Formations: The Social Ambiance of the Web 2.0 4. The experience of the Web 2.0: A Techno-Phenomenology of Multi-tasking and Mobility 5. Critics of Web 2.0: Reading the Informational Politics of the Backlash Further Reading and Links Bibliography

Author Bio

Sam Han is an Instructional Technology Fellow of the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. He studies and writes in the fields of social and cultural theory, media studies, religion and race. He is the author of Navigating Technomedia: Caught in the Web (2007), and co-editor of The Race of Time: A Charles Lemert Reader (2009).