Does Web 3.0 come after Web 2.0?

Next seminar: 26 Novembre, 2010
>>>> Sala:   Media TIC – Sala 6C, Roc Boronat, 117 (Barcelona)

Does Web 3.0 come after Web 2.0? Deconstructing Theoretical Assumptions through Practice

Emiliano Treré (University of Udine, Italy) and Veronica Barassi (iCES, Regent’s College London)  

Current research has been influenced by application developers and computer engineers who see the development of the Web as being divided in three different stages (web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0). As critical social theory of the internet has shown, understanding the subsequent stages in web development is of central importance in order to uncover the network politics of online platforms, and the political economy of the internet environment. However, as this paper will argue, this same understanding can have serious limitations when applied to everyday contexts and the lived experience of technologies. Drawing from the context of the Italian student movement, we show that – in the everyday mediation of political action – the division between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 is often deconstructed by activists’ media practices. Therefore we call for the importance of developing an approach that – by focusing on practice – highlights the interplay between web platforms rather than their transition. This approach, we believe, is essential to the understanding of the complex relationship between web developments, human negotiations and everyday social contexts.