Pitfall and Asteroids

I clearly remember playing our first Atari and thinking it was the greatest thing ever invented. Although the graphics are a fare cry from the games today, the concept of playing video games in your own house instead of traveling to the arcade with a pocket full of quarters was a novel idea. I also remember being dumbfounded on the fact that my parents seemed so clueless on how to play the simple games like Asteroids and Pitfall. The games were easy for me to pick up and navigate, so why couldn’t they do the same?
The answer was the generation gap and the evolution of technology and culture. When my parents were kids they didn’t have video games, heck, they definitely didn’t have a television in their room. Just as people change over time, so does technology and it seems the rate at which change happens has increased over the past few years.
Take the internet for example. In the short time span it has existed, the internet has continually evolved and expanded its capabilities. We have seen the evolution from the Web 1.0 concept to the Web 2.0 concept.
I think the Web 2.0 concept is simply a result of the evolution of the internet and is merely a plateau in time and space as we continue to evolve to new and better capabilities. Taking a look at some of the changes from the Web 1.0 concept to Web 2.0 are pretty interesting.
Take the personal use of the internet in the Web 1.0 model. Personal websites were the rage in the Web 1.0 model. This was the first time people could carve out their very own plot in cyberspace where they could list their interests, possibly include photos and links to their favorite sites. As the Web 1.0 concept evolved to Web 2.0 we see that personal websites gained a more interactive perspective. Instead of users simply stating their interests, they now participate in blogging and have a hand in the flow and distribution of information on the internet. The “blogoshpere” was born.
I think the concept of Web 2.0 is a legitimate claim, and not just a corporate buzzword. There are visible difference between the Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 that justify this, such as the change in the personal use of the internet. I think the concepts of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 will become more evident as we move forward to Web 3.0 and start to realize all the advances that we have made. Web 3.0 will further push the envelope of interaction as the users roll evolves from passive to participatory in terms of the producing and distributing news and information on the internet.