This blog is for a CS299 Web 2.0 project, at Bentley University. The project is to select a Web 2.0 company, and investigate it more deeply, and understand how and why it works, together with answering a number of related questions.
In particular, the assignment requires us to evaluate a Web 2.0 company from the perspectives of technology, business strategy, and its social impact.
In addition, we need to address a number of questions from Amy Shuen’s excellent book, Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide.
The company I chose was Freebase (www.freebase.com) which, for those unfamiliar with it, is essentially a huge, free database service; it’s true that some elements of Freebase are not dissimilar to Wikipedia, but – amongst other things – the structured format of its data, together with its comprehensive tools for data retrieval, distinguish it, with Freebase information, by design, built for dissemination.
A model of the Freebase platform is shown below, courtesy of Freebase.com. This image, along with most of the information on the Freebase website, is licensed under Creative Commons, with a CC-BY license.
The original image can be found at http://www.freebase.com/docs/data.
Anyone that has useful comments to make with regards to Freebase, then please feel free to add your comments; or, even better, if you happen to work for Freebase, then your comments would also be much appreciated. (and thanks to those who already have contacted me via Twitter, or have left comments).
Web 2.0 Tools/Sites Used During This Project
- Freebase.com
- YouTube (Freebase developer video, as seen on the “Freebase Stuff” page)
- Screencast-o-matic.com (for the video; link on the “Strategic and Tactical Questions” page)
- WordPress.com (i.e. this free site)
- Twitter.com – for gathering interest in this site, and communicating with users, etc
- Google Docs – for providing CS299 project upddate, amongst other things
