Corporate Web 2.0 Applications: Motives, Organisational Embeddedness, and Creativity Harald von Kortzfleisch, Ines Mergel, Shakib Manoucheri, Mario Schaarschmidt University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz, Harvard University, University of Kassel. Web 2.0 and the Corporate World The term Web 2.0 suggests a technological leap by placing a version num- ber and misleads insofar as it is in fact used to characterise a new occu- pancy of internet technologies. In contrast to Web 1.0, which was all about defining and creating destinations for web users, Web 2.0 is about people and content. We are taking on O’Reilly’s definition and define the new oc- cupancy of the internet as follows: “Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that plat- form: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an ‘architecture of participa- tion’ and going beyond the page metaphor of web 1.0 to deliver rich user experi- ences” (O’Reilly 2005, p. 13). “Rich user experiences” are not only the result of social networking per se but especially of “user generated content”. The term “user generated content” stands literally translated for content which is produced by the user of the internet. The beginning of user generated content within the set- ting of community portals can be traced back to the bulletin board system