Independent Access to Data
Ideally, Web 2.0 services reach for a wider range of clients
than the PC browser. They allow access from and dissem-ination of data to devices such as mobile phones, PDAs,
game consoles, etc. By oering multiple sources of input,
this principle increases potential participation of the user.
Additionally, the location-awareness that often comes along
with mobile devices makes new applications possible, e. g.,
location-aware dating, sight-seeing, etc.
In addition to device independence, the data on a Web
page itself becomes independent of the intended usage of
the server and, as a consequence, resources located at an
URL become usable in a number of ways. Rendering the
data for presentation in a browser, the standard processing
of today, is only one of the multiple potential applications.
For instance, micro-formats can be used to annotate part
of the data. These are predened mark-up languages that
allow to a annotate data on Web pages and thereby assigning
a semantic [21, 11]. This semantic is exploited not by the
server but by the client using plug-ins. For instance, contact
information on a Web page that is annotated with the hcard
micro-format can be directly exported to a mail program or
address book. It is no longer the server that denes the
usage of the Web data, but the client. The browser starts
to act a as information broker.
From a pedagogical viewpoint, having additional means
for active participation is advantageous. Being able to par-ticipate from everywhere using mobile device will lead to less
articial learning situations, which do not take place in front