The era of Web 2.0: the changing role of web administrator

I’ve realised my post last week contained several editorial errors so I decided to revise the whole article and post it again. So here’s my post for week 2.

Picture by techcn

Web 2.0: the changing role of web administrator

After covering the features of Web 2.0 during the lecture, I’d like to share some thoughts in association with my personal experiences to further explore what Web 2.0 means to web administrators/content creators.
Less complicated jobs
In the era of Web 2.0, web administrator/content creator’s job has been simplified a lot. When I built up my first personal website in 2000, I had to create every single web page by writing HTML or using editing software such as Microsoft FrontPage. I also had to maintain the site regularly by using FTP to upload web pages one by one. In fact, at the beginning of 21 century, most personal websites couldn’t afford to use technologies that allowed more interactions between users and web administrators/content creators. Renting a big enough web space that supported such technologies could also cost a fortune. So the majority of personal websites were still using the most basic HTML. Nowadays an administrator does not have to know how to write HTML or anything more complicated than writing a post. If you want to build up a website, you can always download relative templates and sources for free, upload it onto your space and install it by double clicking a document for installation (who can’t do that!). Your websites will update automatically every time a user submits a post. Your virtual host provider (if you are renting one) will backup your database everyday. All you need to do are to read posts and delete the ones causing trouble in your website.

More equal with users
Nowadays, the power relationship between users and web administrator/content creator is more balanced. Web 2.0 technologies are designed to generate users’ feedbacks. When we were still using Web 1.0, users could read web pages but there was no convenient way for users to provide instant feedbacks. The only option was to send administrator emails, but many people would not go through the troubles. So the online contents were created by minority but read by majority. Web 2.0 technologies allow users to give feedbacks right after reading the contents on web pages. For example, in forums, there is ‘reply’ button available under each post. On blogs, there is ‘comment’ button under each entry. All these sorts of design encourage users to interact with content creators and other users in a more active way. Therefore, content creators are not isolated from users anymore; they take advices and hence are under more influences from the users. Moreover, for websites using Web 2.0 technologies, users are content creators and information providers too. Forums and discussion board are heavily relying on users’ interactions and creations. Wikipedia is a typical example of how traditional form of website now turns into user generated website.

More constrains
In the era of Web 2.0, web administrators/content creators can enjoy less freedom. When people were still using HTML and JAVA to write web pages, we have more room to design the page layouts according to our own preference and with more creativity. Nowadays, web administrators/content creators don’t have to possess professional knowledge, hence they tend to choose the website software that is easy to adopt. Such softwares are similarly designed. Thus most smaller websites are using similar layouts. Particularly personal websites do not have many choices but to use the limited number of free or cheap templates, which are like invisible frames constraining the things we can do online. In other words, they are like laws in cyberspace except they are not written down. For example, the design of a blog decides it will never function like a discussion board. A blogs shows the owner’s posts on the main page. Comments will only show if you decide to check out the whole content of a particular entry. Such arrangement puts more emphasis on the blog owner’s creation than the blog readers’. So arrangement of layouts and spaces can limit the creativity of web administrators/content creators.