Developing a Web 2.0 Strategy: Michael Webb

What VLE? – wrong question … looked at user req’s first – nice one … identified main use is putting course materials on the web so built a portal - My Learning Essentials … the portal used for distributing course materials, discussion, remote access to docs, news … added a for sale board … thought web 2.0 may be important strategically – went for blogs and wikis … thinking about the ‘digital native’ – those only known digital era … future students are … 7 years old using think.com … they don’t use email at all … another mention of bebo.com ... current students already using these freely available web apps that uni has no control over … students want sms (64%), IM (45%), discussion (40%), blog (33%) … no demand for web space. Conclusions … students already web 2.0 savvy … lack of control whether like or not … issue of whether to out source or not … decided not to support blog (bebo does it already) … or social networking stuff … have embraced the web 2.0 beta world … exit strategies – register users or remove altogether … concerns about sms as may be costly if very popular