Information design in Web 2.0 is simple, it is social, and it embraces alternate forms of navigation….. The design of today’s Web applications is being led by a principle of simplicity….. There has emerged on the Web a trend towards socializing things which are not inherently social such as books, photos, videos, and text such as news articles, papers, and posts….. In addition to websites which socialize media and applications, there are websites which are social for social’s sake. These websites are all about connecting people and building community. They are the social networking websites such as the MySpace, Gather, Facebook, and Ning networks.
A comprehensive post from Ellysa Kroski over at Infotangle, based on her upcoming conference presentation Computers in Libraries 2007 conference on Monday, April 16th.
The video below from ZDnet, which covers Mashups, provides another part of the story – an explanation of the extensive influence of APIs in creating the flexibility of Web 2.0.
[‘Caught’ on Library20.ning, with a full post at InfoTangle.]
What is a Mash-up
judyoconnell.com 
Great video, Judy! The concept of a “mash-up” serves to remind us that web 2.0 is community oriented and what one individual does may be built upon, again and again, by any number of people. It also re-enforces, at the “computer-end” of the equation, the importance of open-source software. Essentially the less hard-coded and restricted the environment is, the more room for collaboration, learning and improving upon what is being used and developed.
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Thanks for the clip, Jude. I’d not seen it before. I finally understand where APIs fit into the mashups food chain.