On September 24, IBM and IBA conducted a joint seminar entitled The Web: an evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Held at the Belarusian State University, the seminar was a part of the IBM’s fall tour of Eastern Europe to disseminate technology knowledge and their vision of  Web 2.0, as well as its trends and future prospects.

At the seminar, IBM was represented by the division that deals with advanced technology solutions, namely the IBA Emerging Technologies Group, while IBA by a team that has been cooperating with the Emerging Technologies Group since 1996. According to Valentin Kazan, IBA Group Vice President, “we began by developing JavaBeans for visual programming. As a result, IBA developed more than 500 JavaBeans and received an award from the Java World magazine. VisualAge for Java, XML, Ajax and finally Web 2.0 are the technologies that we use today.”

James Smith, the head of the IBM mission, said that Web 2.0 is a new economic, social and technology trend, a new generation of the internet. It provides new opportunities for targeting different markets, however small they are, improving customer experience, building communities, turning websites to web platforms, sparing resources, and innovating by combining the existing resources. While Web 1.0 was about connecting computers and publishing, Web 2.0 is about connecting people and participation.

Seminar Program

• What is Web 2.0 and what are its benefits for the clients? James Smith, IBM
• Mashup technology in a production environment (application demos and examples of creating applications). Ed Elze and Sam Thompson, IBM
• Evolution of widgets ? mashups. Artem Papkov and Fedor Zboichik, IBM
• Mashup Hub functionality. Oleg Kholod, IBA
• Beehive. Development of Web 2.0 tools for social networks. Keyur Dalal, IBM; Pavel Shylenok, IBA
• Development of iWidgets. Creation of a simple iWidget. Sergei Vasiaichev, IBA.

More than 200 university students attended the seminar. The next day, IBM and IBA organized a similar event for representatives of banks and public institutions.