Chapter 4. Modeling Web 2.0

“The Internet is a platform spanning all connected devices.”

Tim O’Reilly, 2005

Now that we’ve explored some real-world examples of Web 2.0, it’s time to move up a level of abstraction to a model, so we can figure out what’s changed in the broader story. A model captures knowledge about a real-world system in a representative form or pattern. Models also act as points of reference and as sources of insight into the subtler aspects of real-world things. By breaking the whole down into its component parts, we can conduct a more granular examination of those components.

Examining a model in this manner is similar to watching track-and-field high jumpers to learn their secrets: although it might be useful to watch real-time footage of the jumps as a whole, it is often more insightful to watch slow-motion replays of each part of the jump process, focusing closely on the various components to understand the subtle things that are going on at each stage.

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