What is web 2.0

Did your friend send you a link to site X? Watch that video on You Tube? Did you find you new favourtie band via LastFM or Pandora? Do you digg news? Did you buy a book just because other people at Amazon did? And did it work for you? Do you read your news from fourty sources, but only by headlines? Did your friend or students invite you to their social network (Give you a high five or poke you at Facebook)? did you tell two friends and so on?

Welcome to the many faces of web 2.0

Watch an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. He has posted a cool little video…on Youtube put to techno…but this was not just some techweenie wanting to expalin something. This was an anthropological illustration of viral video. He sent a link to ten friends.

…a few hours later it had a hundred hits on youtube as they forwarded the link.

…the next day a popular blogger picked it up

…and then technorati

…and then they dugg it

…and by monday it had hit 19,000 views

…and that same night 30,000

…and tuesday 91,000

…and I found it on inside higher ed looking for insipriation for my other blog, The International counselor.

Now think about this: Anthropology class typically have a limited but passionate appeal. I took a couple in university. They each had about 25 or 30 students. That professor would have to teach over 3000 classes to make that many contacts. A typical professor would have to teach 500 years to hit that number. Granted the video is on one topic and lasts 5 minutes. But all he has to do is plant a seed…and that seed grows. This is not a good video. It is a great video. It not only illustrates the concepts, it teachs history and introduces many of the tools. Moreover it makes me, the viewer curious about its author, Michael Wesch. I want to know more about his work. How does web 2.0 fit in with Cultural Anthropology…or is this cultural anthropology? If only ten percent of the current 158,077 people who have watched it click through to Kansas sate university, that is 15, 807 people looking at the wildcats. And maybe only 10 percent of those might actually apply. Now K-state curently accepts most of their applicants and the vast majority of them from in their state. But this video is being seen around the world. Suddenly, utube becomes a recuiting tool…