I. Rich Content And Multimedia
Content is commodity! Content is sold as form of entertainment and advertising. In fact, content marketing is a flourishing industry. What you see in in social media feeds are raking millions in revenues. Well, that was quite advanced. First, let us get grounded with the core of it all – the content. Do you know that as we move further forwards in Information Age these contents are categorized? There are four types of rich media contents, these are the following:
Rich Content – Rich content consists of different media formats (sound, video and images) used at the same time and place. For example, emojis or gifs are called rich content when they are used within an instant messaging app, posting updates in social media consisting of pictures and story of the content. This is the most inclusive and basic form of rich content. Technically, they are the foundation of later types.
Multimedia – The integration of text, sound, graphics, animations, and video in a single unit. From the word integration, different forms of rich content such as text and sound are used to create one output. For example, a how-to recipe of cooking adobo. Instead of only using the video, you may add the ingredients on screen for a more detailed approach.
Rich Media – Rich media describes the multimedia (audio and video) and interactive (online forms or actions triggered by mouse movement) features. Different types of rich media content might include: Video, GIFs, Instagram stories, Video games/Online Games, Podcast, Content Narration, Infographics, Live stream and topical webinars. If you consume this rich media with limited hardware and internet capacity, chances are high for you to experience lag as inputs are accorded. Take online games for instance, you have the animation; however, you need the user command to keep the gameplay moving.
Interactive Multimedia – means that the user or audience has control over the program or presentation. This is the ubiquitous form of communication during the pandemic. As the show must go on, we conduct our business through online platform. The teacher and student can continue holding classes using Google Meet or Zoom Meeting. There is also the option of “presentation” to demonstrate the process to students while discussing.
The different rich content and multimedia types has its own advantages. Its usage is adaptable to its user needs.
II. History
Web 1.0 –
Web 1.0 refers to the first stage of the World Wide Web evolution. Earlier, there were only few content creators in Web 1.0 with the huge majority of users who are consumers of content. Personal web pages were common, consisting mainly of static pages hosted on ISP-run web servers, or on free web hosting services.
In Web 1.0 advertisements on websites while surfing the internet is banned. Also, in Web 1.0, Ofoto is an online digital photography website, on which user could store, share, view and print digital pictures. Web 1.0 is a content delivery network (CDN) which enables to showcase the piece of information on the websites. It can be used as personal websites. It costs to user as per pages viewed. It has directories which enable user to retrieve a particular piece of information.
Four design essentials of a Web 1.0 site include: (1) Static pages, (2) Content is served from the server’s file-system, (3) Pages built using Server Side Includes or Common Gateway Interface (CGI), and (4) Frames and Tables used to position and align the elements on a page.
Web 2.0 –
Web 2.0 refers to world wide website which highlight user-generated content, usability and interoperability for end users. Web 2.0 is also called participative social web. It does not refer to a modification to any technical specification, but to modify in the way Web pages are designed and used. The transition is beneficial, but it does not seem that when the changes are occurred. An interaction and collaboration with each other are allowed by Web 2.0 in a social media dialogue as creator of user-generated content in a virtual community. Web 1.0 is enhanced version of Web 2.0.
The web browser technologies are used in Web 2.0 development and it includes AJAX and JavaScript frameworks. Recently, AJAX and JavaScript frameworks have become a very popular means of creating web 2.0 sites.
Five major features of Web 2.0: (1) Free sorting of information, permits users to retrieve and classify the information collectively; (2) Dynamic content that is responsive to user input; (3) Information flows between site owner and site users by means of evaluation & online commenting; (4) Developed APIs to allow self-usage, such as by a software application; and (5) Web access leads to concern different, from the traditional Internet user base to a wider variety of users.
Usage of Web 2.0 – The social Web contains a number of online tools and platforms where people share their perspectives, opinions, thoughts and experiences. Web 2.0 applications tend to interact much more with the end user. As such, the end user is not only a user of the application but also a participant by these 8 tools mentioned below: (1) Podcasting, (2) Blogging, (3) Tagging, (4) Curating with RSS, (5) Social bookmarking, (6) Social networking, (7) Social media, and (8) Web content voting
Web 3.0 –
It refers the evolution of web utilization and interaction which includes altering the Web into a database. In enables the upgradation of back-end of the web, after a long time of focus on the front-end (Web 2.0 has mainly been about AJAX, tagging, and another front-end user-experience innovation). Web 3.0 is a term which is used to describe many evolutions of web usage and interaction among several paths. In this, data is not owned but instead shared, where services show different views for the same web / the same data.
The Semantic Web (3.0) promises to establish “the world’s information” in more reasonable way than Google can ever attain with their existing engine schema. This is particularly true from the perspective of machine conception as opposed to human understanding. The Semantic Web necessitates the use of a declarative ontological language like OWL to produce domain-specific ontologies that machines can use to reason about information and make new conclusions, not simply match keywords.
Below are 5 main features that can help us define Web 3.0:
- Semantic Web
The succeeding evolution of the Web involves the Semantic Web. The semantic web improves web technologies in demand to create, share and connect content through search and analysis based on the capability to comprehend the meaning of words, rather than on keywords or numbers. - Artificial Intelligence
Combining this capability with natural language processing, in Web 3.0, computers can distinguish information like humans in order to provide faster and more relevant results. They become more intelligent to fulfil the requirements of users. - 3D Graphics
The three-dimensional design is being used widely in websites and services in Web 3.0. Museum guides, computer games, ecommerce, geospatial contexts, etc. are all examples that use 3D graphics. - Connectivity
With Web 3.0, information is more connected thanks to semantic metadata. As a result, the user experience evolves to another level of connectivity that leverages all the available information. - Ubiquity
Content is accessible by multiple applications, every device is connected to the web, the services can be used everywhere.
The differences between Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Differences between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 –
| Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 | Web 3.0 |
| Mostly Read-Only | Wildly Read-Write | Portable and Personal |
| Company Focus | Community Focus | Individual Focus |
| Home Pages | Blogs / Wikis | Live streams / Waves |
| Owning Content | Sharing Content | Consolidating Content |
| Web Forms | Web Applications | Smart Applications |
| Directories | Tagging | User Behavior |
| Page Views | Cost Per Click | User Engagement |
| Banner Advertising | Interactive Advertising | Behavioral Advertising |
| Britannica Online | Wikipedia | The Semantic Web |
| HTML/Portals | XML / RSS | RDF / RDFS / OWL |
III. Assessment:
- Give one example for each type of rich media content
- Differentiate among web 1.0, web 2.0, and Web 3.0 using an essay.