EDITORIAL

Web 2.0, i.e. the second generation of the World Wide Web, is a development of internet technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information‐sharing and, above all, collaboration among users. In other words, it allows for movement away from static web‐pages to dynamic, shared content. Its arrival has led naturally to the evolution of web‐based communities and hosted services, such as social‐networking sites, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, and so on. Most such communities and sites are free to access and join.

Social networking was popularized by teenagers sharing information with their friends on websites such as Facebook and MySpace. The former is said to be the leading social networking site, with reports claiming that it attracted 132.1 million unique visitors in June 2008.¹ The success of such sites illustrates the value and importance of forming links and building relationships in cyberspace, a development that our profession, perhaps, is being a little slow to embrace? The phenomenon has already reached the business world, where social networks have been created to enable professionals in industries such as advertising and finance to liaise virtually with colleagues and use online forums, email lists and message boards to post business information. Likewise networking sites, such as LinkedIn, allow millions of professionals to share employment details and recruitment opportunities.

Social networks have already been adopted by many healthcare professionals as a means of disseminating knowledge, promoting public health issues, or highlighting the work of individual physicians or institutions. Often they replicate networks in the real world, as when healthcare professionals form multi‐disciplinary teams or patients join support networks.² A Google‐search for ‘Medicine 2.0’ (the application of Web 2.0 to the needs of healthcare providers) or ‘Health 2.0’ (its application to patient needs or ‘patient‐centric’ healthcare) reveals countless developments. Indeed, Autumn 2008 sees the second conference on Health 2.0, which aims to ‘provide a sweeping overview of the things that are happening in this exciting area. Covering everything from innovations in search to healthcare‐focused social networks and consumer sites as well as the exciting trends in wellness and personalized medicine taking shape on the horizon.’³

As with all things, of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to social networking. The principal concern for many is about privacy, at a time when stolen‐identity crimes are never far from the news. For others, it is a too‐daunting move ‘to press a button and potentially allow the whole world to read your words’.⁴ An effective work‐life balance is difficult to attain, so how do we fit social networking into our already busy lives? Indeed, how much information can any individual gather and manage effectively? Nevertheless, Web 2.0 undoubtedly offers a means to bring people together in a dynamic, interactive space, where information can be constantly requested, digested and reinvested. As a profession, indeed as individuals, we ought to see this cyberspace as fundamental for obtaining, developing, sharing and even marketing our own knowledge. According to one blogger (and former editor) of the British Medical Journal, ‘the invention of the web was an essential technical development, but it's the social and cultural change that will have far more impact …It is up to the user whether they can make their experience a good one or a bad one.’⁵ Social networking on Web 2.0 is a fact of life, so what part will we play in it?