Jay Byrne

By Larry Ingram, Edwardsville Journal

Those attending a January joint meeting of the International Association of Business Communicators and the Public Relations Society of America, St. Louis chapters, received a brief primer on the potential of Web 2 technology.

For business communicators, not-for-profit organizations and others, Web 2 can be used to easily target information to constituents and other information users.

Web 2 is used to describe technologies like RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, to send personalized information through the Internet.The topic at the January luncheon was “Communications and Web 2.0: 2008 Trends and Forecast.”

Speakers at the event included Jay Byrne, president of v-fluence Interactive Public Relations, Brian Powell, founder and CEO of Widget Realm and Kate Kromann, e-communications director, United Way of Greater St. Louis.

Byrne said cyberspace and the information it provides to the corporate audience is becoming increasingly important.

“In 2006, every sector of traditional media, other than trade press, has lost audience share,” he said. “All of the vehicles and tools that we are used to using are starting to fade. Where are people going for their content? They are going online.

Byrne said the Internet is providing consumers more information and many more are making their purchases there.

“They are going in more numbers and spending more time online,” Byrne said.

Web 2 provides a means of controlling the information, by making it easier for consumers of information to control how they receive it, he said.

RSS is one method of directing specific information to computer and Internet users, he said.

“With RSS, Web content is automatically delivered to me, to my computer or another device,” Byrne said. “It changes things, because I don’t go out and get things anymore, it’s automatically sent to me.”

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