Web 2.0

It’s a New World Wide Web Order

First things first, Web 2.0 is not a new-and-improved, version upgrade, or new product offering of the Internet. Web 2.0 is simply a term coined by Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media to describe the concepts of content sharing and community development on the World Wide Web.

Social networking, just one of the concepts of Web 2.0, is one of the most widely used and understood aspects of Web 2.0. This isn’t the kind of online socialization that has led many unsuspecting criminals into the bright lights of Chris Hansen’s film crew during the filming of NBC’s “To Catch a Predator.”

The social networking concept of Web 2.0 would include websites like MySpace and Facebook. Even the most recent redesign of USA Today’s website gives you the impression of a greater emphasis on the development of a social network at the media giant’s online presence. The site now prominently features user comments and a USA Today community.

At O’Reilly Media’s website at www.oreillynet.com, O’Reilly summarizes the core competencies of Web 2.0 as having the following features:

Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
Trusting users as co-developers
Harnessing collective intelligence
Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
Software above the level of a single device
Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

What the concept of Web 2.0 really boils down to is the utilization of the World Wide Web as a platform where users and visitors can control their own data, enrich their experiences, and customize their online lives. Web 2.0 is dependent upon the “community.”

Aside from social networking and community development, other terms often associated with Web 2.0 may be less familiar: widgets, RSS, wiki, folksonomy, syndication, user experience, fanboy, blog, crowdsourcing, and mashup are just a few. Want a definition for these? Simply visit wikipedia.org, another of the most-recognizable and utilized websites featuring Web 2.0 concepts in its development.

Confused yet? Wondering what the heck these terms mean? Wondering what their applications might be to an insurance company?

RSS feeds and syndication are increasingly vital tools for news organizations and companies to get word out to their audiences, which could include policyholders, directors, or agents in the case of insurance companies. RSS, or really simple syndication, creates a unique opportunity for you to push out your messages without relying upon visits to your website. Simply, RSS feeds create a connection between your content and a third-party website or e-mail delivery allowing subscribers to be notified immediately when updates take place.

For example, if a news reporter was interested in news releases published by your insurance company as well as 50 others, the reporter could subscribe to RSS feeds – provided they are available and supported – from all 51 companies, and never have to visit any of the websites to know when news releases are published. Once subscribed to an RSS feed, all the reporter would need to do is visit his or her preferred RSS reader (usually a website dedicated to RSS feeds) to get the latest news and information from your company, as well as the other 50 he or she has identified. In essence, RSS feeds have now allowed the reporter to visit one website instead of 51 to get the latest news and updates from all 51 insurance companies.

You could also update your policyholders, agents, or directors utilizing text or video web logs (blogs) that could be published through RSS feeds.

While RSS feeds would make it easier for your audiences to gather information about your company, wikis could allow you to empower your staff to become publishers. Wikipedia.org is an online encyclopedia that allows visitors to update and maintain the content it presents on its website to everyone worldwide. To show both the power and pitfalls of wikis, Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” urged his viewers to log on to Wikipedia and alter an entry on elephants. Colbert’s viewers logged on and changed the truth to say that the population of African elephants had tripled during the past six months.

Applying the wiki concept to your own operations could allow you to dust off those old printed and bound claims manuals, underwriting manuals, ERM documents, and IT technical documentation, to begin updating them as living documents. By publishing manuals as online wikis, your employees and agents could utilize the manuals in their daily operations, update them immediately for publication online when information becomes outdated or requires changes due to operational or staffing updates, and access them from anywhere in the world as long as they have an Internet connection.

And as for the biggie – social networking – there are a number of practical solutions that insurance companies could provide in both the real-world and online realms of audience experiences.

Keeping your agents, field staff, and directors connected to your company could be as simple as employing some form of social network. This can be done with a complex model like the ones deployed at MySpace.com, where users create pages, publish information about themselves, invite friends to connect to their page, and in turn those friends’ friends get connected. The best way to understand this concept is through the “six degrees” of separation concept. Anyone can trace a personal contact back to anyone else in the world – Kevin Bacon for example – through just six degrees of personal contact.

However, even more simple and straight-forward applications exist. Create an online or e-mail discussion forum for agents to share experiences via e-mail posts to a group consisting of other agents. This allows them a forum to discuss and share experiences related to their jobs, and through this interaction, find answers and solutions to their questions and/or problems. These e-mail discussions could also be archived in an online community room.

Utilizing Web 2.0 concepts can be used in any sphere of influence, society, or business. Finding the right blend of those concepts that create less work, not more, and enhance your audience’s experience with your company simply requires some vision and strategy.

As the 2008 presidential election is already racing at full speed, the political environment will be rife with Web 2.0 practices. In fact, if you’re a regular viewer of cable news, or have logged on to YouTube.com, you may have already noticed the young and attractive women proclaiming their allegiances to Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton. A woman calling herself Obama Girl released a music video titled “I Got a Crush...On Obama” on YouTube, shortly followed by a response video “Hott 4 Hill,” featuring former “American Idol” contestant and actress Taryn Southern.

While neither video was endorsed by the candidates, the viral marketing and buzz created by the videos certainly wasn’t dissuaded by either senator. The videos were simply launched on a website that fully utilizes Web 2.0 concepts, and ultimately, created a buzz.

Visit either Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton’s website – or those of the other Democratic and Republican candidates and you’ll see Web 2.0 fingerprints from top to bottom. You’ll immediately recognize the use of blogs, RSS feeds, and social networks – My.BarackObama.com allows links to friends, events, personalized messages, groups, and blogs – and links to some of the websites most commonly associated with Web 2.0: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and flickr.

It’s a wild World Wide Web out there, and the opportunities are limitless. Heck, you may want to even start making real money selling insurance to fake people for their fake houses and fake cars. Log on to SecondLife.com and join other real-world business selling real-world services to fake-world clients. What are they selling? Party and wedding planning services, tattoos, fashion design, jewelry, fine art, real estate services, advertising, landscaping, and legal advice just to name a few. Potential clients in the online world – more than two million active residents.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:00:00 AM. Modified: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 3:58:28 PM.

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We are 1,400 property/casualty insurance companies serving more than 135 million auto, home and business policyholders, with more than $196 billion in premiums accounting for 50 percent of the automobile/homeowners market and 31 percent of the business insurance market. We are the largest and most diverse property/casualty trade association in the country, with regional and local mutual insurance companies on main streets across America joining many of the country’s largest national insurers who also call NAMIC their home. More than 200,000 people are employed by NAMIC members.