Alcatel Web 2.0 services, Стратегический белый доклад

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New communication behaviours in a Web 2.0 world
1. Global change in communication behaviours
Changes affecting the internet and the telecommunication industry are the result of changed
communication behaviours, going back more than two decades. The spread of broadband
internet and the development of Internet Protocol (IP) were the basis for the evolution of new
software and technological devices. The result has been an evolutionary shift in the internet.
1.1 How are behaviours changing?
People’s communication behaviours are clearly changing. But how? A number of trends or
factors stand out:
• Collaboration
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People are starting to take a more active role in the development of information and knowledge.
Traditional reference works, such as encyclopaedias, are no longer seen as the only sources of
reliable information. Through collaboration – the collective development of information and
knowledge – more people have more access to a greater fund of global knowledge than any
formalized information source has previously been able to provide.
• Social interaction
The internet allowed people to develop and capitalize on their social circles (such as networking
groups and sports clubs). It then allowed people to expand them.
• Personalization
People now want more personalized information. The changing radio industry is an example of
this. In recent years there has been a growth in the number of small radio stations focusing on
niche markets, like news, jazz, sport or Latin music, all enabled by the ability to disseminate: the
internet gives access and communication, worldwide, to even the smallest of niches.
• Active participation
People are no longer passive receivers of information. They want to contribute and share their
own perspectives.
• Communication through technical devices
Internet communication is slowly taking over from traditional phone-based voice
communication and face-to-face communication. Restrictions to local or regional communities
no longer apply: the internet has enabled easy global communication.
These social changes are being driven by wider socio-economic changes. Once the conduits
for changing trends were the mass media (TV, radio and newspapers), the phone and personal
social circles. The internet has not only taken over this role but advanced the pace of change,
becoming a platform for high-speed innovation across an ever greater mass of people.
And the internet itself has changed radically in its short history. Once it was a network created
by a few skillful developers. Most users were passive readers of unstructured content with access
to very basic search functions and with limited options to influence that content. Today’s
internet is more user-focused; users drive the development of the network and can directly affect
the quality of the content.