The concept of Social Media is one of the most profound products that the turn of the 21st century has given us. It has changed the face of publishing, public relations, marketing, and yes even media itself. This comes with the rise of the phenomenon in the industry called "Web 2.0." It's all about empowerment of the user, and a paradigm shift in how the World Wide Web is structured, and how the Information Highway will take shape in the years to come.

Web 2.0 is all about two powerful concepts. First is decentralization. Second is collaboration.

The Web 2.0 model shifts the power to produce content away from the established mainstream, and towards the individual. Before, the information available online on the World Wide Web was static, and controlled by the few who had access to server equipment and content, such as newspapers, magazines and companies with big marketing budgets. Back then, weblogs were relegated to being personal journals and nothing more.

Today, however, blogs are popular sources of online commentary, opinion, and sometimes even journalistic reportage. Moreover, other technologies have started to mature. Video sharing sites have become popular channels for grassroots moviemaking. Podcasts--audio programs distributed over the Internet--are becoming good alternatives to talk radio.

The other side of the coin is collaboration. The Web 2.0 model has made it very easy for people from around the globe to collaborate towards a single goal. This could be in the form of one single document being edited online by dozens of people to make sure the information is accurate and the language is clean. Or, this could be in the form of thousands of users voting on whether an item is newsworthy or not. This could be in the form of people sharing their favorite online destinations for friends and online contacts to see and to refer to in case of shared interests.

Wiki-based encyclopedias, such as Wikipedia, let anyone add and edit information. A group of trusted editors, meanwhile, make sure the content is verifiable and accurate. News sites that rely on voting mechanisms to determine what is noteworthy have also become popular. Sites like DIGG and the recently-revamped Netscape have proven to be good sources of popular news, and these use democratic systems, in which users determine what news items are worthy of promotion to the front page.

Not only is this being done in the grassroots, since there are already big-ticket purchases and investments by big names such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Online applications are the big thing. Whoever can capitalize on the heavy user interaction will be the winner.

In short, social media is all about interaction. It has enabled the Internet user to shift from being a consumer to being a prosumer--one who produces and at the same time consumes information. Social Media has enabled the user to choose what information to consume, and likewise give powerful recommendations to his contacts to that effect.