Stephen Honeycutt

University Honors with Honors in English

Major: English Minor: Psychology

Supervisor: Anthony Atkins, English

Web 2.0 and the Entrepreneur: Why Developing A Literacy in Web 2.0 is Crucial for Today's Business Venture

Web 2.0, a common interactive internet technology, offers web users a diverse set of opportunities for communication, collaboration, and business ventures. With such 2.0 technologies as social networks, blogs, and wikis, web surfers can create online profiles, publish online journals, and develop interactive web pages. Most web 2.0 technologies allow users to use these programs and applications for free. These technologies are great for fun and keeping up with friends, but the marketing potential of web 2.0 tools should not be ignored.This thesis is intended to illustrate the functions of web 2.0 technologies beyond their perceived common use. Web 2.0 technologies are capable of reaching large audiences and providing users the opportunity to consume, produce, and distribute ideas, services, and products to a wide range of people. For a concrete example, this project follows one musician's experience in learning to put web 2.0 technologies to work for him as a way to publish and publicize his music. With this example, along with research on larger companies and artists that have already experienced great success with web 2.0, this project illustrates how web 2.0 technologies can be used as a form of publicity and marketing. This project will reinforce the idea that proficiency in web 2.0 technologies is an important skill set for entrepreneurs in any area of business, be it the promotion of a product, a service, or a cultural commodity.