It's one of the most over-hyped and least understood terms in the online world, but when Web 2.0 is done really well, it's a technology that leaps off our computer screens and into our lives. And it's already having real effects on our everyday behaviour.

In a nutshell, Web 2.0 is a catchall phrase used to describe technologies and experiences that allow web users to interact online. That interaction could be with other people, or with programs, or with collections of files and databases of information.

In the early days of the web, most sites were static — visitors basically clicked on a link and were presented with a set page of text and images. With Web 2.0, visitors get a much more interesting experience — pages allow them to upload or download content, run embedded programs, see information that is kept up to date by automatic feeds from online databases, vote for their favourite content, and interact with other site visitors to share ideas and information. Facebook, Flickr, Digg and Wikipedia are good examples of technologies that fit the Web 2.0 mould.

Here's my Top 10 list of real life Web 2.0 experiences you may have in 2008:

You will be visited by a mysterious stranger from your past

I went to a tiny grade school in Windsor, Ont., which closed in the mid-80s. Unless you went there, you don't know it. But in less than five minutes on Facebook, I found a group that had pictures, a discussion board and contact details for many of my old classmates. Facebook fulfills the Web 2.0 promise by helping to create real-life connections with your old classmates, work buddies, bowling league … whatever.

You will get your game on

Video game platforms are a multibillion-dollar market worldwide and no other sector has embraced the Web 2.0 philosophy with quite the same zeal or effectiveness. Anyone anywhere in the world with an internet connection can get in the virtual game and play with other people on the internet using a variety of interactive online gaming platforms available on PCs or Macs (from sports and racing games, to battlefield simulations and virtual worlds), or using TV set-top gaming platforms like the Xbox or Nintendo Wii. These platforms offer not only gameplay, but also the opportunity to chat with other players and even join organized teams. The appeal is universal. At its Christmas unveiling, my niece' s new Wii entertained a group of seven to 70-year-olds with equal delight for several hours.

You will Wiki something

Wikipedia is very Web 2.0 in the way that it allows the user community to build content, creating a massive online encyclopedia that is expanded and kept up to date by its audience. Recently, there have been a number of Wiki-themed extensions of the model for managing various forms of other user-defined content, such as Wikimedia — a not-for-profit foundation that oversees several Wiki-themed interactive libraries — headed by former CBCer Sue Gardner. Wikimedia already has projects underway collecting news, quotations and learning tools. It seems likely that the Wiki wave will swell in the next year and the technology will be adapted for professional use, as well as its current free consumer version.

You will replace the "normal" phones in your home or office

Voice over Internet Protocol is a fancy name for technology that allows people to make free long-distance calls over the internet. But it's not just talking; there's video conferencing and file sharing too. And VoIP costs pennies to use and operate in comparison to regular phone service. Microsoft's Response Point product, for example, lets small businesses integrate all inter- and intra-office communications — such as phone, e-mail and video conferencing — into a single, voice-activated desktop experience. Providing small and medium-sized businesses (and even homeowners) with sophisticated communications tools that rival what the big boys have to play with is very Web 2.0.

Your wireless life will become more like your wired one

For all the hoopla over mobile devices these days, the experience of web surfing on your cellphone or personal digital assistant (PDA) is nowhere near the quality of doing the same thing on your wired computer, is it? Several Canadian Web 2.0 companies are busy delivering tools that let software developers build and deploy cool software applications just for mobile users; after all, there are 4.3 billion of us around the world. Expect to have some of these mobile products and services in the palm of your hand in the coming months.

You're going to hear the words "Open Source" a lot

The internet was started by eager young software developers who wanted to share their ideas with one another. Back in the 1970s, the rule was: "It's okay to copy and build on my work, just make sure if you make any money at it that I get a little something." Back then, this pay-it-forward style of building software was called copyleft; today it's called Open Source development. Open Source is critical to developing cool, feature-rich applications in business sectors like mobile where there's not a lot of great software yet. When the software industry reduces product control and puts the future direction of new technologies into the hands of relative strangers, that's tres Web 2.0.

You will take your fantasy life to the next level

Every conceivable demographic plays fantasy sports; it's a worldwide phenomenon. The problem is, once I set my lineup and the NFL playoffs kick off, my interactive experience is pretty much over in a traditional fantasy league. Web 2.0 takes things up a notch, offering fantasy sports players real time chat, streaming statistics, opinion polls, and points wagering on in-game events like "Should they go for it on fourth down?" If sports isn't your thing, there are similar applications out there for fans of reality TV and awards shows, with other uses coming.

You will see a problem and do something about it, then and there

As tremendous a commercial force as Web 2.0 is, its charitable possibilities are equally astonishing. If I asked you for $50 for a youth charity over the phone you'd probably say no. But if I asked you for a 50-cent pledge on your next bill by pressing # on your cellphone just as you walked by a community youth rally, I'd have a better shot, wouldn't I? By embedding the "cry for help" within an environment in which the consumer is most likely to be sympathetic to the charitable cause, Web 2.0 taps the power of human sentiment when and where it is the strongest, and the sheer number of people online means that the sum of many small donations or actions can make a big difference.

You will be (seriously) outsmarted by a fifth grader

There is as good a chance as not that the youngest member of your family is also the most Web 2.0 savvy. Tweens — kids aged eight to 12 — are the most technologically astute consumers on the planet. They are also the primary reason parents spend money on technology to begin with. On her recent birthday, my eight-year-old niece received a new iMac desktop, an iPod, and a membership to Club Penguin (a social networking site for tweens started by three dads from Kelowna, B.C., that was just bought by Disney for about $700 million). All this exposure to technology when they are young makes Canadian kids among the most Web 2.0 savvy — and dependent — on the planet.

You will claim your spotlight on the world stage

Whether you post videos to YouTube, blog about your gardening hobby, share pictures with friends, or get freaky on video chat with funbunny43, you are creating content and fuelling the interactive experience.

As Web 2.0 continues to evolve, you can expect a better-refined selection of tools that provide you with even greater opportunities for creativity and community-building.

In the end, good Web 2.0 is a self-defined asterisk on the permanent online record of who you are, and how you interact with others.

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