Title: Web 2.0 revisited: user-generated content as a social innovation

Authors: Bastian Pelka; Christoph Kaletka

Addresses: Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund (sfs), Central Scientific Institute of the Technische Universität Dortmund, Evinger Platz 17, Dortmund 44339, Germany ' Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund (sfs), Central Scientific Institute of the Technische Universität Dortmund, Evinger Platz 17, Dortmund 44339, Germany.

Abstract: This paper raises the question whether Web 2.0 can be seen as a technological or a social innovation and which interdependencies exist between these two innovative aspects of the phenomenon. For that purpose, the definition of Web 2.0 as a tag cloud (for example given in Wikipedia) or as a difference in comparison to a ‘Web 1.0’ is revisited, challenged and discarded. In following steps, the paper argues that the core innovation of Web 2.0 is the communication of ‘user-generated content’ as a new social routine. The main enabling factors for Web 2.0 utilisation as a social routine are identified as easy-to-use software and broadly spread internet access. So while technology is seen as a ‘catalyst’ of the phenomenon, the innovation itself (user-generated content) is considered a social one.

Keywords: Web 2.0; social web; social innovation; user-generated content; wikis; blogs; virtual communities; online communities; web based communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2011.043072

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2011 Vol.5 No.2/3, pp.264 - 275

Received: 03 Nov 2010
Accepted: 05 Aug 2011
Published online: 13 Oct 2011 *

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