If you have been on the Internet for a decent amount of time, you have no doubt noticed that in many ways, it has evolved considerably for the vast majority of people who are on it. For one thing, the Internet has gone from little more than a glorified store front and museum to being more of an interactive exchange among equals. And when an average person can be the equal of a massive corporation in a space such as this, it is an extremely momentous shift in how we think about the world. Web 2.0 is all about allowing people to express themselves and share the contributions that they can make online. Truth be known, even if we wanted to, we probably could not stop them no matter what we tried.
There was a time in which the net was all about just showing people something. At that point, you had to go through the steps to put up your own website if you wanted to say anything at all. Because of this, there was at least a thin veneer of legitimacy that surrounded any site that a person or other entity put up. There were no blogs, as they are now. Rather, there were simply people and organizations stating their opinions, essentially talking at whomever came to where they were hosted and often trying to sell something or other. Things have most certainly changed since then.
Nowadays, anyone and everyone can have a voice on the Internet. While not everyone has a blog (which is a shortening of the term “web log”), but the number of people who do not is most definitely shrinking rapidly. And the best part about this is, you do not need to be someone who is “important” to be able to say what is on your mind. And what is on your mind might actually be a great contribution to other people. With web 2.0, everyone is equal.