Web 2.0 is the second generation of the World Wide Web, which provides a useful platform for knowledge sharing that focuses on user collaboration and social networking. Nowadays, Web 2.0 is of growing importance with its various applications, including blogs, microblogs, wikis, web services, and virtual communities.

This is a general reference book that also provides a very complete history of the web from the beginning until today, helping readers easily understand every aspect of Web 2.0. The author takes an interdisciplinary approach to how the web has evolved and how it might develop in the future. The web is presented as a large, complex, engineered environment with a significant impact on society.

The structure of the book is based on the iceberg model of Web 2.0, developed by the author. It presents the technologies and standards of the web as an ecosystem of services that are joined together by six big ideas, based on O’Reilly’s seven principles.

An introductory chapter presents the background information and key concepts. This chapter gives readers an opportunity to understand the general concept of Web 2.0. The rest of the information is broken into three sections: “The Six Big Ideas,” “Web 2.0 Services,” and “Framework for the Future.”

The first section contains the fundamental ideas and principles of Web 2.0, such as user-generated content, the architecture of participation, data on an epic scale, harnessing the power of the crowd, openness, and the network effect and web topology. This section is a very good starting point for readers without a computer science background.

The second section presents the main types of Web 2.0 services: blogs, wikis, online social networks (Facebook, MySpace, and so on), media sharing sites (podcasts and photo/video sharing sites), social bookmarking sites (Delicious, for example), and microblogging services (such as Twitter). Each chapter in this section begins with an overview of the service and how it is used, followed by a brief history and a description of the technology involved, which is an important guide for research students.

The final section starts with a discussion of the technologies and standards that underpin the operation of Web 2.0, and finishes with a look beyond Web 2.0 to various possibilities for future developments, such as the semantic web, cloud computing, big data, the Internet of things, and web science.

The sets of questions and points to ponder at the end of each chapter are positive features of the book. However, new technologies and popular services are continually emerging.

The book is suitable for a wide variety of people with interests in information science, business studies, social informatics, and media studies. It has an accessible style that can help readers from many different backgrounds who have little knowledge of computing, for both self-study and teaching purposes.

I recommend this book particularly as a complementary textbook for an undergraduate course in computer science. Furthermore, parts of the book address both computer science undergraduates and post-graduate research students, who will especially benefit from the literature reviews and the 43 pages of reference resources.