The Internet has changed how we do business, get information, entertain ourselves and keep in touch.  It has given us enormous choice about what to buy, watch, read, and listen to.

Anyone with access to the technology can have a voice and a stake online. We buy and sell on Ebay, record and share music, and watch ourselves on YouTube. We write stories and opinions in blogs to share with the world.

At least we have for the last four or five years.

Until the middle of this decade, however, we did not use the power of the internet as we do today.  Mostly, companies and organizations set the agenda. We could choose what to buy and download from an amazing number of choices, but otherwise users were passive.

Today, because we download and upload, create content and share it, the internet has become horizontal. It is no longer a top-down enterprise. And the horizontal Internet revolutionizes business, entertainment, and the media – it revolutionizes society.

The change in that short four or five years is summed up by the term Web 2.0-- the whole package of changes in the way we use the Internet and the technology that goes with it.

Web 2.0 refers to a social phenomenon, not a new version of software.

There is much to love and much to hate about Web 2.0 and today’s Internet. The same technology that allows the world to see atrocities that would otherwise remain hidden, allows child pornography to flourish and helps terrorists to plan attacks. Internet content often undermines tyranny and oppression; it often undermines morality, decency and the law, as well.

Entertainment companies complain of the loss of billions as individuals share music files. Experts from many fields worry about amateurs’ opinions and the often incorrect information and advice that circulates. Some established book reviewers want a law banning un-authorized reviewing!

However we feel about the benefits and threats of the horizontal Internet, it is an equalizer, and it is here to stay. We can use the technology to help or to hurt, but use it we will.

Because we all can have a voice online, we all should have a voice about the future dynamics of the Internet. The students and faculty of CNC’s New Media Communications and Design Program will host a public forum – Web 2.0 and Beyond -  to discuss the dynamics of the horizontal Internet.

The event will feature three panelists who will discuss the implications of Web 2.0:  Kate McCabe, editor and writer; Heather Smith, acting director of the Centre for Learning, Teaching, and Technology at UNBC; and Eric Karjaluoto from Smashlab in Vancouver. There will be an open discussion following the panel’s remarks.

The free forum happens at the College of New Caledonia on Thursday, March 20, 2008 from 7 – 9 PM in room 1-306.  All are welcome.