The 8C Framework as a Reference Model for Collaborative Value Webs in the Context of Web 2.0

After a decade of innovations and advancement in Internet technologies (roughly from early 1990s to early 2000s), the first generation of Web-based applications (aka. Web 1.0) have evolved into a new trend of Web-based services, commonly referred to as Web 2.0. In this paper we present a framework for understanding the various design elements of a collaborative value Web in the context of Web 2.0. We first examine characteristics of Web 2.0 applications, and then discuss why the current 7C framework fails to capture all the design elements of a Web 2.0 application, especially with respect to collaboration, which is one of the unique features of Web 2.0 applications. Although the 7C Framework is a model commonly used by researchers to analyze the design elements of Web-based applications, it needs to be revised in order to accommodate new features present in Web 2.0 applications. We have extended the 7C framework to an 8C framework by incorporating into the model the collaboration element. A side-by-side comparison reveals how each of the design elements may be interpreted under Web 2.0 and Web 1.0. As a demonstration of using the extended framework as a reference model, we analyze a set of representative Web-based services using the 8C framework.