BIB_14: Dilger, B. (2010). Beyond star flashes: The elements of Web 2.0 style. Computers and Composition, 27(1), 15-26.

In this article, Dilger complicates "style" in the context of Web 2.0, and argues for a understanding of style "defined by its conceptual stand on truth, presentation, writer, reader, thought, language, and their relationships" (p. 16, quoted from Thomas and Turner's Clear and Simple as the Truth). He argues that the core value of style in Web 2.0 is function, functions are layered and never hidden, function provides identity. He further argues that the emphasis on functionality of Web 2.0 gives rise to different human and non-human writers and readers of Web 2.0, and thus is "the real engine of its much-ballyhooed participatory nature" (p. 20). Because for Web 2.0 style, "interoperation, not representation, must be transparent," Dilger argues, code has become a window that connects applications across the web required by the convention of sharing on Web 2.0, and standardization has become necessary. Moreover, Web 2.0 style welcomes a variety of conceptualization of "networking" which provokes fundamental changes on the web. As a result, users have become more important than ever, and because of the new "we" the emerged with Web 2.0, Dilger argues that a new design, "users-centered" rather than "user-centered," must be cultivated. The Web 2.0 style also recognizes the weak ties that link the applications and users, namely, low-risk, low-effect networking. Finally, Dilger revisits the problem of the style vs. substance question of Web 2.0, and call for critical apparatus to understand the new changes on the web, including in educational contexts.

This is a great article that puts some important issues on the table for us to understand the new changes on the web called by some, not unproblematically, Web 2.0. Many of Dilger's observations are useful for me to formulate a model to examine Web 2.0 sites/applications, especially the arguments for function and users.