There has been recent emergency and rapid growth of web 2.0 which revolutionized the way the web technology is being used. There are increasingly inundated with web 2.0 technologies which affected almost all areas of IT from enterprise to business intelligence (BI). This research paper aims to find out how web 2.0 technologies affect or impact on e-business, IT organizations-both business Intelligence and data warehousing and social networking applications. The web 2.0 technologies like Ajax, rich internet applications, blogging and wiki are discussed on how they impact on e-businesses and social networking applications. Web 2.0 provided a platform for developers to create a dynamic web applications. The research shows that web 2.0 is client centric and business oriented.
Keywords: Social Networking, Web 2.0 technologies, e-business
INTRODUCTION
Patricia, et al, (2008) defined Web 2.0 technology as the umbrella term which refers to internet tools or technologies used in web applications that enable, facilitates individuals and organization to communicate and share information from different geographical locations. Web 2.0 tools collaborates and facilitates individuals and organizations allowing them to participate in the body of knowledge by uploading information, editing the existing information from web applications and post their comments on the social network applications. Maria and Yi-chen, (2007) state that Web 2.0 integrates the idea of open source. Its purpose is to share the goal, work and the result.
The difference between original web 1.0 and web 2.0 is that web 2.0 allows user participation in developing and managing contents of web applications which is dynamic and solution to the problems are quick and features of contents revolves quickly. According to Patricia, et al, (2008) further states that web 2.0 enables and facilitates active user participation and allows uploading and publishing of textual information by individuals while Web 1.0 was all about connecting people (Mark, et al, 2007). Web 2.0 connects people to people.
The web 2.0 tools are extremely important in now days hence there are business oriented. Online shopping for example, now days is easier with the use of these electronic web tools for transactions. People can just exchange information and upload their personal information on web applications to order items they want. Payments are also done electronically and goods are shipped to the individuals who have placed an order. E-learning is also easier made with web tools through the use of social network application like facebook, myspace etc.
The 2.0 web tools include social networking, Ajax, rich internet applications(RIA), wiki, blogs etc. these tools will be defined and discussed in depth or more details in the next section (literature review) and how they revolutionizes and impact on IT companies in Business Intelligence (BI) and data ware housing, and e-commence. The discussion of these web 2.0 tools will also cover areas of their applications, benefits and risks encountered when using such web tools on business. After literature review section, benefits, risks and opportunities, future trends and recommendations, conclusions and summary sections are discussed.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The aim of this section is to define and critically evaluate web 2.0 technologies. The development of the web 2.0 technologies has played a pivotal role in areas of education, business, social community networking and IT web application developers. This has come due to the use of the emerging web technologies. These web 2.0 technologies are countless but this paper is focusing on Ajax, RIA, blogging, wiki and their impact on business Intelligence (BI), e-business and social networking applications.
Ajax
Ajax technology is one of those emerging technologies that have revolutionized the IT Business Intelligent in order to come up with flexible and dynamic web applications. Zhijie, et al (2008) mentioned that Ajax is synonym for Asynchronous JavaScript and extended markup Language (XML). Ajax is a hybrid technology for development of dynamic web application that enables asynchronous communication of web server and direct manipulation of user interface (Alessandro and Paolo, 2009).
Ajax technology combines different web technologies like HTML, JavaScript technology, DHTML, and Document Object Model (DOM), which is powerful and outstanding approach that helps to transform clunky Web interfaces into interactive Ajax applications.
The diagram below show how Ajax application works as compared to tradition web applications.
Traditional Web Application Compared to Ajax Web Application
Zhijie, et al (2008) reported that most traditional Web applications use a request/response model that gets an entire HTML page from the server. The result is a back-and-forth that usually involves clicking a button, waiting for the server, clicking another button, and then waiting some more. With Ajax and the XML HttpRequest object, we can use a request/response model that never leaves users waiting for a server to respond. Alessandro and Paolo, (2009) indicates that Ajax overcomes the synchronous request-response protocol used by traditional Web applications by supporting asynchronous requests, which leave the user interface active and responsive. The Ajax technology has impacted IT business enterprises since developers can implement asynchronous communications between client and server. Because of this, the Ajax object XMLHttpRequest wraps any service request or data traveling between client and server. The asynchronous response from the server is handled at the client side by Javascript code which is part of a callback triggered by the response. Upon arrival of the server message, the handler method associated with such an event is run. Depending on the received data, the message handler can change the structure or content of the current Web page through the DOM. Domenico, et al, (2010) state that user interface of an Ajax application is implemented by one or more Web pages that are composed of individual widgets, which can be updated, deleted or added at run time independently. The manipulation of the page widgets is performed by an Ajax engine written in JavaScript (JS) that is loaded by the browser at the start of the session, accesses the page components by the DOM interface . Since Ajax Web applications are heavily based on asynchronous messages and DOM manipulation, it is expected that faults associated with these two features to be relatively more common and widespread than in other kinds of applications.
Francis and Kevin, (2009) stated that due to the faster growth of such emerging tools, the user needs grows even faster. For software companies such a context is difficult to be handled because, within the original development cycle, the development of an application takes several months or years delivery. A rapid software prototyping could be very useful in those cases helping the user to rethink its needs in terms of functionalities and interfaces.
Rich Internet Application (RIA)
Traditionally Web applications have great deficiency in their usability and interactivity in graphical user interfaces (GUI). Marianne and Nora, (2009) reported that Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology was developed to overcome the limitations of the traditional Web applications by providing richer, flexible and more efficient graphical components similar to desktop applications. RIAs are web applications that offer the responsiveness, rich features and functionality that are similar to that of desktop applications. Traditional web applications were developed using static HTML that support only basic graphical user interface (GUI) and perform simple functions without the look or feel of a desktop application. Piero,et al, (2010) stated that RIA technologies support client-side storage in a way that depends on the specific technology and device. For example, clients can locally store the shopping cart in an e-commerce application or an appointment calendar while users are manipulating this data. In the original Web, the server also performed business logic. RIA technologies enable moving part of the computation to the client. Offloading computation to the client allows quicker response and optimizes ccommunication costs. Both communication parties (client and server) can initiate communication and program functionalities on the client side receive and execute server commands spontaneously. The capability of client to initiate communication eliminates many unnecessary server request from client applications. The development of user interfaces of RIAs are based on Ajax tool which is hybrid of technologies working together.
Characteristics of Rich Internet Application
Marianne, and Nora, (2009) stated that RIAs are certainly characterized by their different ways of utilization compared to traditional web applications. Based on these characteristics, different functionalities such as live validation, auto completion, periodic refresh, and even rich text editors can be offered to the RIA user, the distinguishing characteristics of RIAs are related to technological features used to build this kind of web applications. These features are data distribution, distribution of page-computation, asynchronous communication between client and server and enhanced user interface behavior. In the following sub sections, this RIA features are further discussed.
Data Distribution
In traditional web applications, data resides on the server. In RIA applications, data can be distributed between both server and client. The developer can decide about the distribution and even design an application that may temporarily be used irrespective of the server. Data can be manipulated on the client, and finally sent to the server once the operation has been completed. These technology however comes at pros and cons. The advantages of the distribution of data on client and server side are:-
offline usage
validation and preparation of data on client side
Some disadvantages of the distribution of data are common problems of the database field;
data replication
policies for allocation
consistency of data
Distribution of Page Computation
Traditionally, the controller resides only at the server side, which performs the computation of the page. At each user interaction, the whole page is computed from scratch and reloaded. A client in RIAs perform computations and refresh pages rather than server. Data processing can be executed both at client and server side. RIAs have a different navigation structure from Web 1.0 applications. Both of client and server has the capability to perform some complex operation in RIAs. Some benefits of distributed page computation are;
live validation
offline usage
page rearrangement
However, the problem of a distributed computation is the additional data required by client.
Client-Server Communication
To minimize data transfers, RIAs introduced interaction and presentation layers from the server to the client. Marianne and Nora, (2009) further discussed that RIAs use both synchronous and asynchronous communications. Pull and push communication capabilities are available on both client and server. These capability of RIAs has greatly reduce communication cost. The back and forth of request and responses from client to server utilize a lot of bandwidth. The advantages of synchronous and asynchronous communication are:
partial page refreshment
page rearrangement
display morphing
Enhanced user interface behavior
RIAs offer enhanced interface behaviors and improved user interactions. e.g. multimedia support, animations and drag & drop. The strength of these feature are as follows;
Application page works on its own at client after loaded
Automatic refreshment of page is done at client side reducing communication cost.
The problems of these feature of RIA are performance problems and browser incompatibility problems
WIKI
Wiki is one of the emerging web 2.0 application tools. Web 2.0 as discussed above has the capability of allowing web contents to be edited, changed and added to the content management system by different users. This capability is possible due to the use of web tools like Wiki. Kevin and Joseph, (2007) defined wiki as a collaborative web site whose content can be edited by visitors to the site, allowing users to easily create and edit web pages collaboratively. Community of users can carryout their discussion issues over the wiki web based application. Wikis allow visitors to engage in dialog and share information among participants in group projects, or to engage in learning with each other by using wikis as a collaborative environment in which to construct their knowledge (Kevin and Joseph, 2007). The common wiki web application is Wikipedia that can accept millions of documents from student. Wiki play a pivotal role for e-learning in education sector where students can discuss educational topics over the web application and produce the draft of their discussion over the internet.
Uses of Wiki
As the above literature indicates, wikis usage are countless but few are listed below;
Education- this includes composition, literature, distance education. Etc.
Software Engineering- because of its collaborative nature and the convenience features of the wiki makes it an ideal tool for software project collaboration and communication Kevin and Joseph , (2007).
Wiki is used to keep track of histories of web pages and versions of the documents. Although wikis play important role in community social networking, it has some weakness. It does not validate the information entered therefore any garbage can be posted on the web. Information from wikis cannot be relied on.
Blogs
Gregor, et al, (2007) Defined Blogs as customizable personal websites that allow the user to contribute regular or irregular entries that are displayed on the site in reverse chronological order.
Blogs can be independently used and it can also be used in conjunction with other web 2.0 technologies. Unlike wiki, blogs are used to add entries or upload information to either personal or commercial web application but does not allow other users to edit the uploaded document unless authorised. Such uploaded files can be rich files like videos, photos and other important medias. The blogs have improved on traditional web applications by allowing web visitors to post their comments and owners may read them and use them if needed. Blogs has no facility to scan out garbage comments.
Impact of web 2.0 Technologies on e-business
The aim of these section is to evaluate how web 2.0 has impacted on IT companies and e-business in general. There are number of factors that web 2.0 have effected on the business and IT enterprise systems. Some are discussed in the subsections below.
Business to Business (B2B) Transactions
Donald and Sandy, (2006) in their proceeding reported that today's competitive business environment, companies are seeking ways to perform transactions efficiently and effectively. The employment of new technologies often calls for a redesign of processes and an acceptance of change from traditional way of running businesses.
The internet has played a crucial role for the business to business transactions this days. Due to the flexibility of the web 2.0 internet applications, businesses has adopted the idea of functional business to business (B2B) applications, which is buying and selling goods over the internet. The adoption was due to the fact that business process and transactions are done on time which improves the efficiency and effectiveness of business services. Businesses capitalise profit from web 2.0 because marketing of business product is targeting at specific group.
Improvement on business Marketing Strategies
This subsection discus on how web 2.0 technologies have improved on business marketing strategies. Xuejuan , et al, (2009) expressed that with the number of available web services growing large, supplying the appropriate services for E-business becomes crucial. The flexibility, low cost and ease of distribution of services electronically has forced lot of commercial companies to perform their business process electronically. Shuchih and Chia, (2010) reported that the constantly changing market sector, marketing strategies are moving from market segmentation and mass production to customized marketing. Planning marketing schemes with focus on various consumer characteristics is quite important for targeting at either a particular customer group or individuals. Business companies in their business strategies include how e-catalogue or e-business is going to carry out their market to specific group of people. This lead to a change in the strategic management of most business companies and business process. The marketing strategies of business now days is customer oriented and are customized to specific group of customers. Many companies use e-mails to deliver e-catalogues because of its fast distribution, low cost, and ease of use.
IT companies and Business Intelligence
Web 2.0 has not only affect business only but even the IT companies which develop such web applications have also changed the way they develop enterprise systems. Web provides a powerful platform with lots of tools and components for application developers. Web applications developments are customer driven for easier data mining and meet their needs. Web users only specify key words and related options, and the approximate or accurate results will be sorted out and presented to users as search results (Shuchih and Chia, 2010). Web Developers now days depend on web 2.0 technologies so as to keep web application as flexible as possible.
Web tools like Ajax makes development easier with some specific data set and methods through some free APIs like Google maps enables rapid software prototyping (Francis and Kevin , 2009).
Benefits, opportunities and Application of Web 2.0
This section discusses the possible areas of applications, benefits and risks of web 2.0 technologies.
Areas of web 2.0 Application
Web 2.0 concept encourages rich information exchanging and enables individuals to collaborative with others for content creation. Web 2.0 is all about sharing and exchanging information through web applications. The collective effort of user groups in the cyberspace have becomes an emergent division of social intelligence (Yuan and Tsung, 2009).The following are examples web 2.0 applications;
Myspace
Flicker, etc
Benefits and Opportunities of web 2.0
Some of the benefits web 2.0 technologies are;
Business capitalised its profit on web 2.0 technologies.
Improve market strategies of the business.
Used mostly in education for e-learning and facilitates student's discussion over the internet.
Used to provide social networking services like facebook, etc.
Web 2.0 applications can accessed by small devices like cell phones.
Risks of using web 2.0
Risk is an important factor for every business transactions done electronically. This section of the research paper discuss some risks in areas of business transactions and reliability of information exchanges with other web users. The source of information and its reliability for decision making is a crucial aspect.
Risks of using web technologies on Business
The dynamic, open and convenient web environment not only boosts business potential and the economy but also creates concerns of security, trust, privacy and risks (Omar H, et al, 2008). It is of great importance in the business domain when initiating agent of interaction online, consideration of all possible risks and analyse possible solutions and avoidance of those risks. Security and privacy is key concern when you start to transact electronically. The following are some of the risks one should consider;
Eavesdropping-Intruders may break network and systems security and able to view all information exchanged.
IP spoofing- Intruders may forge the IP address of the web server and all transactions will be send to the wrong server.
Hackers may still buyer's credentials during shopping online and use them for her or his bargain.
Risks of Information source Reliability
Most of these web 2.0 application software's are free and accessible to any user. Web 2.0 applications allow contents to be changed dynamically and some of information posted may be from entrusted sources. Contents of such applications may not be true enough for decision making to base on. Such web sites like wikis and blogs may not be relied on.
Future trend and Recommendations
Mehdi, (2007) mentioned that semantic processing is the holy grail of computing. Future web development aims at human natural language processing and speech understanding semantics. There are semantic logic challenges on assigning meaning to the amount of data stored on the Web. Web developers seek validation methodologies for data posted and uploaded on the web. This still remain challenge on web users because some information posted on the web applications are garbage and unreliable. Web developers rely on dynamic languages like Ruby to create next generation web applications. The platform where web application is running like browser, network bandwidth cost and security, client side processing and storage, etc are the future trend of web applications. Web 3.0 is recommended to cater for all the challenges in web 2.0 technologies.
Summary and Conclusions
The paper has identified and discussed how web 2.0 impacts on e-business, IT business enterprises and evaluate how it drives social networking applications. The literature survey has been carried out, definition and discussions of web technologies has been critically evaluated against some traditional web technologies. The paper shows that web technologies has brought a vast change both in areas of business, IT enterprise systems, education and community social networking applications. Business marketing strategies and business processes has been customized into customer's requirements. Web 2.0 is collection of multiple technologies like Ajax, DHTML, XML, etc that work together to produce powerful interactive and collaborative web applications. A web 2.0 application as compared to traditional web applications is faster. Some risks and areas of applications have been discussed. The research shows that web 2.0 is client centric and business oriented. Web 2.0 technologies used to develop dynamic customer driven applications.
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