First item to really get me thinking in chapter 3 was on the first page! Steven Downey stated , “Web 2.0 is not a technological revolution; it is a social revolution…..” Reflecting on the changes in the hardware and software industries over the last 10 years lead me to believe software manufacturers had a major role in today’s outcome. Remember when Microsoft released the Millennium (ME) operating system? The cost of the program was a little over a $100 or $59 for the upgrade. When XP hit the shelves in 2003 it was $199 for the package and $99 for the upgrade. Does that mean the cost of developing an operating system doubled in just 3 years? Hardware was expensive and software was in many instances, even more costly than the hardware. People spend a lot of time and money developing software that made our lives easier and we paid for their efforts.
Software manufacturers with Microsoft leading the charge developed new procedures for the installation of software, a registration code generated from a product key or serial number was necessary for installation. We all can appreciate that fact the companies need to be paid for their products but, these companies lost sight of their customer’s frustration from costly products to daunting installation tasks that frequently required a call to the manufacturer for an override code. Software manufacturers had created a way to prevent people from sharing or pirate the software they purchased. Yes, the software license was for use on one computer, but some of the software was used infrequently making it easy to share with friends for both limited use and evaluation. People began looking for easier solutions and Freeware and Shareware began to rise in popularity and shift began.
“It (Open Source) enables the Web to shift from being a medium in which information is transmitted and consumed into being a platform in which content is created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along,” states Downey. The quality, quantity, and variety of software programs available for free is amazing and a credit to the web 2.0 community. Web 2.0 makes trying and doing things easy and affordable. I hope it will aid in reducing the impact of the digital divide.
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