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G. Gartner:
"WebMapping 2.0";
in: "Rethinking Maps", M. Dodge, R. Kitchin, C. Perkins (ed.); Routledge Studies in Human Geography, 2009, (invited), ISBN: 978-0-415-46152-8, 68 - 82.

The term web 2.0 was initially popularised by O´Reilly Associates in 2004
to reflect changes in the ways in which the World Wide Web was being
deployed, and has subsequently come to stand for what is a potentially
revolutionary change in the nature of the Internet. Web 2.0 extends the
traditional Web by employing an architecture of participation that goes way
beyond following hyperlinks. In this next generation of networked services
a website is used as a platform for others to extend or edit content or
services, instead of simply disseminating information created by a webmaster.
Examples of web 2.0 applications include social-networking sites, video
sharing and podcast sites, wikis, blogs and folksonomies. Such websites are
designed to work in a social, collective and participatory manner, as is the
open source software that underpins their development. Such software is
increasingly being used in the development of cartography and mapping
services, and a number of web 2.0 mapping applications are active across
the Internet.
Web mapping in web 2.0 applications differs significantly from the first
generation of web mapping. Web 2.0 applications include collaborative,
volunteer-led base map compilation such as OpenStreetMap and hybrid web
publishing that relies upon feeds, blogs, wikis and especially mashups. These
new ways of using the Web alter the way in which information is accessed:
users often become map producers and assemble data from many discrete
and dispersed sites.
In this chapter the main issues of web mapping 2.0 are discussed as well
as the consequences for cartographers and users. Questions over the quality,
integrity, design and aesthetics, privacy and potential influences of governments
or commercial companies are key for the success of the mapping in
web 2.0. It is argued that web mapping 2.0 enables the integration of social
and technical aspects into models of cartographic communication and that
the process of technological change is itself leading to an important rethinking
of mapping.