The Internet - Web 1.0 Through Web 2.0

Known collectively as 'the internet,' this massive information network has become a part of our every day lives. This is a very brief history.

Web 1.0

Web 1.0 was an early form of the internet, made of largely static read-only websites. Users couldn't form virtual communities or input data without external tools. Purchasing an item listed on a Web 1.0 website, for example, would often require switching to email to conduct the transaction.

Web 1.0 was largely centralized and much more unidirectional than what we are familiar with today.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 introduced user-modifiable dynamic websites, allowing anyone to input data without relying on external tools. Payment systems were integrated and communities began to form. It became more decentralized in architecture while simultaneously centralized communities developed and grew.

Nearly every action undertaken by a person interacting with Web 2.0 communities has value. That value comes in different forms.

Sometimes it's direct value, such as Facebook getting a cut of transactions on the Facebook Marketplace.

Sometimes it's indirect value, such as your demographics (age, sex, dispositions). These bits of data allow advertisers to categorize and selectively choose which groups should get which ads to best sell their products.

Influential Web 2.0 organizations (Ex: Facebook, Twitter, etc.) realized that they could use this to their advantage. The more people they kept within their community, the more value they could harvest both directly and indirectly.

Despite the community being an active part of the value creation, that value is rarely returned to the community in any tangible manner. If you leave Facebook, you don't get paid for all the data you left behind.

Facebook is incentivized to extract as much direct and indirect value from its users as possible while directing that value upwards towards shareholders in the company. It has no reason to pay you - you're a willing participant and it loses nothing if you leave.