While the term, “Web 2.0,” has been used to describe a wide array of applications and businesses that are often fueled by user-generated content and designed with many-to-many communication in mind, there’s one universal, operative word that sums up the essence of 2.0-ness: participatory.
But it’s not simply the case that all of this participating happens online in a virtual vacuum, where content is shared, accumulated, and archived without consequence. Participating online can also motivate users to participate offline.
As we’ve seen during this mid-term election season, videos posted to YouTube can and do affect public opinion–however fleeting that effect might be. And those involved in get-out-the-vote campaigns who aimed to increase young voter turnout this week through
