The Problem With Collaboration
Web 2.0 has taken on the meaning of collaboration. In fact, ask some people, and that’s the definition of Web 2.0.
They could be right, but is collaboration really all that?
Web 2.0, or collaboration if you prefer, is based on several components on Web interaction:
- Blogging
- Content Management
- Wiki
- RSS
- Social Media
- Social Bookmarking
- Social Networking
- Podcasting
In some sense, each of these tools allows more than one user to create content for a single or multiple websites. It’s what some people are calling the “democratic” nature of the Web. But do the benefits outweigh the dangers?
First, you must ask yourself why you would want others assisting you with publishing your content? Is it because you are too busy to do it all yourself or you don’t want to spend the time necessary to create content so you’d like others to help you build your website for you? If so, then I’d suggest you don’t really need a website.
But if your goal is to build a community then there could very well be some benefits to using social media and collaborative tools in your content creation strategy. But what tools?
Each of the collaborative tools available to you have their benefits and drawbacks. You should weigh them against each other to determine whether the tool will work for you or not.
For instance, wiki technology is great for allowing users to collaborate with owners in publishing valuable content to an entire community, but you have guard against trolls and vandals. Some people will use the opportunity to be destructive. If you don’t keep a close eye on it then it could get out of control. One way to avoid this kind of destructiveness is to require potential editors to establish an account in order to make changes to the website.
Collaborative efforts can be rewarding, but there are dangers, and whether you call it Web 2.0 or something else, you’ll need to spend some time determining just what you want out of your website, what you expect to get from collaboration and whether it is really necessary.
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