Ownership – Fundamental to the whole "revolution" is the fact that individuals can now ‘own’ their own space on the Web – moving from being consumers to becoming contributors and collaborators. Sites that allow individuals to create and maintain their own collections of photos, videos, music and bookmarks online are examples of this.
Personalization – the ability to customize the interface of many of these sites is an example of the personalized approach. But personalization goes a lot deeper with this, and includes the ability to actually ‘construct’ the way in which information is represented, where it comes from, how it is used etc.
Participation – the move from simply publishing or participation is another hallmark of this software. Even blogs, while being a personal publishing tool, allow for participation – at one level through the comments that can be left, and at another through the communities of interest that develop.
Aggregation – the availability of software that makes use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) demonstrates how information from one source can so easily be integrated into another. Sites that allow individuals to create their personal aggregations of news feeds, blog links, and other feeds, such as NetVibes and PageFlakes, are
good examples of this. Other sites such as Technorati illustrate how easily communities of interest can be formed through the aggregation of people’s blog entries.