The entire morning today was spent watching the CNN-YouTube Democratic Candidates Debate broadcast yesterday (and uploaded in 12 parts by a faithful YouTuber soon after). For those who came in late - although by most estimates it is still quite early - I’m talking US Presidential Elections 2008.

Though the debate, or rather conversation, between the candidates and random YouTube users via online video was quite infotaining, this blog post is not about what transpired there. (You may want to watch the chosen questions here and the responses here. A sample appears below.) No, this is not about that.

Sample excerpt of questions of our interest...

I’m just citing it to reflect once again on the changing world and the instrumental role that the web is playing. The instrument is a particular form of internet that has been billed Web 2.0, implying that we are currently witnessing a second version of the web, as if it were a single application.

YouTube, Del.icio.us, WikiMedia, countless new websites and even our very own Drupal¹ are examples of Web 2. The hallmark of the Second Web is user-generated content (ugc), supported by AJAX² and related technologies.

As I hoped to illustrate with the mention of the latest US Presidential Candidate Debates, ugc has definitely arrived. It has enabled semblance of the ultimate ideal of democracy, when aspiring political leaders have to face, quite literally, questions from sundry citizens, not nameless or faceless anymore. Moreover, they can quote speeches, show documents and audio-visual content to supplement a poignant question. (Though not everyone is thrilled, especially not the traditional media.)

And the ‘u’ in ugc does not necessarily imply the average user. Tony Blair and the European Union have their own YouTube channels. When users are allowed to generate and instantly publish content online, even the most powerful take notice and advantage.

In our times, the term ‘access’ is getting redefined. In a town with 100 phones, when the 101^st phone is connected to the exchange, 100 new connections are forged. Today, we do not depend on an authority to add new connections. Members of a community can themselves generate content, and instantly get it connected to countless numbers. I wonder if you share my overwhelming sense of realization.

Our website is no different. Most universities have Web 1.0 kind of websites: people scattered across departments have the additional, much resented, chore of supplying a bureaucratic IT department with information. Now once the website is put up with grudgingly forwarded content, its routine maintenance is a … er… it involves painstakingly cumbersome transaction. In my hunt for graduate schools, I came across several which give course schedules from Fall 2004 or application deadlines from last year, in the better cases.

MESPOM.eu, whereas, is a Web 2.0 website. While we do have a teacher putting in extended late hours into erecting the architecture of the site, most of the content continues to be user-generated. At least, the idea is that all content would be generated by users browsing the website – like you now - and adding a comment here, a page there, and a picture once in a while. You have plenty of content we all want. If and when Batch 1 people add a note about their post-MESPOM occupation, it instantly becomes accessible useful information to anyone around the world visiting the website with an interest in MESPOM. Administrative staff will benefit from reading about pre-MESPOM practicalities in students’ home countries. Current students would expectedly have many more current things to share with faculty, staff, each other, other batches and website visitors.

Come on, folks! Everyone is making their presence felt around the new Web 2 world. We are among the lucky few who have our own virtual Web 2 island to populate.