LIBR 246-12: Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools (Fall 2008)

Evolving technologies are not only challenging the WWW model, but are redefining a new paradigm in which the distinction between information providers and consumers has been removed. In this context, community-driven initiatives such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and file sharing have emerged and rapidly gained influence. This paradigm shift imposes an immediacy and responsiveness by the web that keeps affecting issues that need to be readdressed; such as authorship, citation, copyrights, etc. It is also affecting how narratives are evolving and the ways we communicate these discourses.