Web 2.0: Where Does Europe Stand?
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Web 2.0: Where does Europe stand? Author: Sven Lindmark EUR 23969 EN - 2009 The mission of the JRC-IPTS is to provide customer-driven support to the EU policy- making process by developing science-based responses to policy challenges that have both a socio-economic as well as a scientific/technological dimension. European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Prospective Technological Studies Contact information Address: Edificio Expo. c/ Inca Garcilaso, 3. E-41092 Seville (Spain) E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +34 954488318 Fax: +34 954488300 http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu http://www.jrc.ec.europa.eu Legal Notice Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication. Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed. A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server http://europa.eu/ JRC 53035 EUR 23969 EN ISBN 978-92-79-13182-0 ISSN 1018-5593 DOI 10.2791/16327 Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities © European Communities, 2009 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged Printed in Spain PREFACE Information and Communication Technology (ICT) markets are exposed to a more rapid cycle of innovation and obsolescence than most other industries. In order to avoid losing market share to competitors in commodity markets, ICT companies have to sustain rapid innovation cycles. As a consequence, the competitiveness of the European industry in this sector must pay attention to emerging and potentially disruptive technologies. In this context, the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR) and the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS)1 have launched a series of studies to analyse prospects of success for European ICT industries in the face of technological and market innovations.2 These studies, under the common acronym "COMPLETE"3, aim to gain a better understanding of the ICT areas in which it would be important for the EU industry to remain, or become, competitive in the near future, and to assess the likely conditions for success. Each of the "emerging" technologies (or families of technologies) selected for study are expected to have a potential disruptive impact on business models and market structures. By their nature, such characteristics generate a moving target whose definition, observation, measurement and assessment precludes the use of classical well-established methodologies. The prospective dimension of each study becomes an intrinsic challenge that is to be solved on a case-by-case basis using a mix of techniques to establish lead-market data through desk research, expert group discussions, company case analysis and market database construction. These are then combined with a strong reflection on ways and means to assess future competitiveness of the corresponding industries. At the same time these characteristics result in reports that are uniquely important for policy-makers. The collection of COMPLETE studies illustrates, and each in their own right, that European companies are active on many fronts of emerging and disruptive ICT technologies and are active in the supply to the market with relevant products and services. Nevertheless, the studies also show that the creation and growth of high tech companies is still very complex and difficult in Europe, and too many economic opportunities seem to escape from European initiative and ownership. COMPLETE helps to illustrate some of the difficulties experienced in different segments of the ICT industry and some of the anguishes of growing global players from the ground up. Hopefully, COMPLETE will contribute to a better understanding of opportunities and help shape better market conditions (financial, labour and product markets) to sustain European competitiveness and economic growth. The present report reflects the findings of the JRC-IPTS study related to Web 2.0 Technologies. The report starts by introducing the Web 2.0, its characteristics, early market diffusion and potential industrial impact, before moving to an analysis in terms of the contribution to the competitiveness of the European ICT industry. David Broster Head of the Information Society Unit JRC IPTS 1 IPTS is one of the seven research institutes of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). 2 This report is one out of a series, part of the umbrella multiannual project COMPLETE, co-financed by DG ENTR and JRC/IPTS for the period 2007-2010 (Administrative Arrangement ref. 30667-2007- 07//SI2.472632) 3 Competitiveness by Leveraging Emerging Technologies Economically i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was produced by the Information Society Unit at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). It is part of the study "Competitiveness by Leveraging Emerging Technologies Economically" (COMPLETE) which is jointly funded by Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR) and JRC-IPTS. The author would first like to thank Marc Bogdanowicz (JRC-IPTS) and Martin Ulbrich (DG EMPL), for their important contributions to this report. Thanks also go to Yves Punie (JRC- IPTS) and Jean-Claude Burgelman (DG RTD) who reviewed a draft final version of the report, and to David Broster (JRC-IPTS), Mats Markusson (DG ENTR), Antonios Pavlopoulos (DG ENTR) and Georg Raab (DG ENTR) for their support and comments. It should also be mentioned that parts of the report draw (implicitly and explicitly) on other ongoing research at JRC-IPTS – in particular, the "Exploratory Research on Social Computing (ERoSC)". The section on Mobile 2.0 draws in addition on the exploratory research project on Mobile Content Evolution and contributions by Claudio Feijoo (JRC- IPTS). The results were presented in a workshop in November 2008, attended by representatives from the European Commission (JRC-IPTS, DG ENTR, DG INFSO, DG EAC) and industry experts, all of whom offered valuable comments. Finally, the skilful checking and editing of the text by Patricia Farrer and Niamh Mundow (JRC-IPTS) is gratefully acknowledged. 1 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.......................................................................................................................VII 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 RATIONALE .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 REPORT OUTLINE ..................................................................................................................... 2 2 INTRODUCTION TO WEB 2.0....................................................................................................... 3 2.1 WHAT IS WEB 2.0?................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 APPLICATIONS OF WEB 2.0 ....................................................................................................... 4 2.2.1 Blogs .................................................................................................................................. 4 2.2.2 Wikis .................................................................................................................................. 4 2.2.3 Social tagging .................................................................................................................... 5 2.2.4 Social networking sites ...................................................................................................... 5 2.2.5 Multimedia sharing............................................................................................................. 5 2.2.6 Social gaming – virtual (online) worlds and MMOGs......................................................... 6 2.2.7 Other applications..............................................................................................................6 2.3 WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES .......................................................................................................... 7 2.4 CHARACTERISTICS OF USE ........................................................................................................ 9 2.5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 10 3 DIFFUSION OF WEB 2.0 ............................................................................................................. 11 3.1 STATE AND RATE OF DIFFUSION ............................................................................................... 11 3.2 LEVELS OF USER PARTICIPATION ............................................................................................. 12 3.3 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 13 4 DRIVERS, VALUE CHAIN AND REVENUE MODELS ............................................................... 15 4.1 WHY WEB 2.0 SPREADS ........................................................................................................