From consumer to producer

In weeks 11 and 12 of the semester, the content of COMP1900 switched to the recent development of Web 2.0 technologies and crucially how the individual computer user is now beginning to switch from being a passive consumer of information to now being active producers of content in their own right.

Week 11 introduced the cohort to the concept of Web 2.0 and the tools that underpin it. It was clear to most that people we were all active users of Web 2.0 without really being aware of the significance of it. For me, I believe the crucial tenet to Web 2.0, and the idea of being a producer rather than a consumer are tools that make it easy to create a web presence. A few years ago, to have a web presence required investment in a desktop webpage program, perhaps the purchasing of web space to host the site and the technical know-how to upload the site you made. This could never, of course, be done quickly and required a great deal of effort to even update the site when you had something new to say.

Now through the use of blog sites, Myspace, Facebook and the like, people now have easy-to-use tools to create a web presence without the rigmarole it used to involve.

With the power to create content easily, however, comes the responsibility to act in an ethical manner and the concern that too much personal information being broadcast to the world engenders serious privacy issues. This was the focus of Week 12. The ability for people to create web content available to the entire world in the space of a few minutes means people who do not hold concepts of ethical behaviour in high regard can post whatever distasteful, rude, slanderous or defamatory items they want with very little recourse available to others to have such content removed. This situation is actually being played out by one of the fellow class members, who is using his blog to denigrate the course and question the merits of this assessment piece.

There was considerable concern a few short years ago that the development of the internet would lead to the leaking of personal information. What might not have been envisioned then, however, is the reality that at the moment people are readily volunteering often very personal and intimate information about themselves on social networking sites such as Facebook. I'm not an exceptionally large user of too many of the slew of Web 2.0 platforms and technologies as I simply would prefer to limit the number of separate organisations that hold details like my name, date of birth and credit card information.

The transition of computer users from consumers to producers provides a new and exciting opportunity to interact with people in the same neighbourhood or even across the globe. With this opportunity comes the requirement to post content in a responsible fashion, be respectful of copyright and intellectual property and ensure that personal information is only revealed where necessary and only to web presences of good repute.