As noted in the previous post, Web 2.0 technology, or social media, is a relatively new form interacting online. As such, there is limited academic research which specifically explores Indigenous peoples’ uses of social media. One of the best resources I found on this topic was a podcast from CBC’s Spark featuring Duncan McCue and Candis Callison, both Aboriginal professors at the UBC School of Journalism:
Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as follows:
A Web 2.0 site may allow users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where people are limited to the passive viewing of content. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies.
Web 2.0 is distinct from Web 1.0 in that the latter was used mainly to share information in a unidirectional fashion: from creator to user. Moreover, before social media tools such as blogs and Twitter emerged, most websites were developed and published by corporations, organizations, and a select few who could master HTML code as well as navigate the process and cost associated with publishing a website. Thus, many of us can recall first generation websites that did not allow for any user interaction, and were essentially an online version of print media.
Fish (2011) uses examples from American Indian tribes to explore the different uses of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 technologies to share tribal histories. He outlines opportunities and drawbacks for Indigenous uses of both types of technology.