The World Wide Web is turning from a network of machines into a network of human beings:

• The human being is at the centre.
• The user doesn’t simply surf through the net anymore but he modifies and adds to it.
• He writes a web-diary.
• He displays his photographs on exchange sites.
• He puts his knowledge at disposal in online-encyclopaedias.
• He recommends his bookmarks to other users.
• The internet is changing from a network of computers and servers into a network of the people.
• In social networks users are being linked to each other.

Administer pictures with Flickr.

Writing online diaries (travel diary).

Manage knowledge with Wikipedia.

Administer videos with YouTube.

(According to O’Reilly: Web 2.0 for Participation)

New programming techniques allow of individual data exchange with the server:

• GoogleMail reports without reload when new messages have arrived.
• Writely, the online word processing programme, opens contact menus after right click.
• Google Maps zooms maps without resending the entire request to the server.
• The web is more and more turning into an application, offering look & feel of programmes locally installed on the PC.
• The secret is the new technology called Ajax.
• Ajax stands for „Asynchronous JavaScript and XML“.
• The combination of these two techniques allows the exchange of only specifically requested data between browser and server.
• Ajax provides for new contents on the website without having to completely reload it.
• The traditional web organisation in sites is taken over by new web applications as fast as desktop software.
• In addition, Ajax enables the mixing up of different web offers since data can derive from diverse sources.

The AJAX principle (According to O’Reilly: Web 2.0 for Participation).

(According to O’Reilly: Web 2.0 for Participation)