0740-7459/10/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE May/June 2010 IEEE SOFTWARE 11 Editor: Christof Ebert n Vector Consulting Services n christof.ebert@vector.com software technology E ver since 2004, when O’Reilly Media orga- nized the irst conference devoted to Web 2.0, the term has been applied to any new Web-related activity. 1 But Web 2.0 isn’t so much a new technology as a new way of us- ing Web technologies. Speciically, it’s a way of letting users easily produce Web content. Web technologies let users work in the Internet cloud in the same way they work on their own desktops, but with the advantage of a collaborative culture. The key point is that the Web is the workplace, and users create the value. In this article, we describe Web 2.0 tools for IT practitioners. We include examples of their uses in a project for Openbravo’s main product, an open source enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool to support daily business operations and strategic deci- sions in a Web environment. Web 2.0 Services Web 2.0 technologies, tools, and applications of- fer many services. Software engineers have used many of these services for a long time, but their value multiplies as part of the Web 2.0 ecosystem. Table 1 lists the services we describe here. The table includes links to their general use at Open- bravo and their speciic use in the company’s lo- calization project. Because the project is open source, you can test the services online. Like any other software, ERP tools must be translated to new environments. However, ERP needs much more localization effort than other applications because it must work with each lo- cale’s speciic regulations, including accounting and other business procedures. ERP localization in a foreign country is further complicated when the software company isn’t familiar with the country’s language and laws. If dozens of coun- tries are involved, the best solution is clearly to get help from the local communities and take advan- tage of Web 2.0 features in the process. In our example project, Openbravo deined and published a localization process for each country. The users or partners in that country then build the speciic iles and programs. Open- bravo tests the compatibility of the developed lo- calizations and provides a site for sharing them with the community. Forums Although forums have existed almost from the be- ginning of the Web, their purpose has changed in Web 2.0. In the traditional Web (Web 1.0), they Nicolás Serrano and José Manuel Torres Web 2.0 has been a buzzword ever since software engineers started connecting different applications and data on the Internet. What are the most promising technologies for applying Web 2.0 in your IT? What tools go beyond gimmicks to help professional developers? Authors Nicolás Serrano and José Manuel Tor- res introduce the major open technologies and show how to integrate them in a professional application. Needless to say, we can’t dive into all the interesting details, such as security or performance engineering. We’ll have to leave those for later columns. I look forward to hearing from both readers and prospective authors about this column and the tech- nologies you want to know more about. —Christof Ebert Web 2.0 for Practitioners