Ever since I started devoting most of my non-Stephen time to professional blogging, it’s been a challenge explaining to people what exactly it is I do. Saying I’m a blogger seems so frivolous yet I take it very seriously, but calling myself a writer seems a little pretentious although it’s accurate as well. I would still like to say I’m a scientist* but I haven’t been one for many years now.

When b5media received venture capital, it began calling itself not just a blog network but also a “new media company,” which means diddly squat to most people everyone I talk to. John Evans calls Syntagma a “publisher of network magazines” and his bloggers “digital authors.” Huh?!

In a nutshell, it’s Web 2.0. If we create any type of content on the Web whether it’s blogging, podcasts, videos, or even just comments on these, we are part of Web 2.0. b5media VP Ops, Mark Evans, explains:

To me, a basic definition of Web 2.0 is it’s active/dynamic Web; the place where people do things. This is different from Web 1.0, which was static and mostly involved accessing material that you would have otherwise had to have read in a newspaper, magazine or book (and all those flawed IPOs made by companies with little revenue and but lots of hype).

Here’s a video that helps describe the essence of Web 2.0 created by Professor Michael Wesch of Digital Ethnography @ KSU. Too bad I can’t show it to everyone who asks what I do but I may send them the link to this post.

 

*Stephen knows that Mama is a scientist, Baba is a general manager, Gong Gong (grandpa) is an engineer, and Po Po (grandma) is an office manager. He also knows which big internet companies my sister and her husband work for.

HT: ProBlogger