There are many advantages to online publishing of materials. Some of which I knew before, some of which me Web 2.0 class has made me aware of, and some of which I was aware of before and are becoming clearer and more noticeable to me with time ans experience with Web 2.0.

Documents—

Older documents are usually delicate and rare. Having them available online allows many people to see documents which they might never be able to do with a print document. Users are able to view, comment on, share, print, etc. Footnote.com is a great example of this, and allows users to do all of the mentioned actions and more. Many archives around the world are scanning documents and making them available to users.

Maps—

Maps are one thing that are not only available online, but are well known and commonly used. Googlemaps and Mapquest are two of the most common map sites. They are the only ones that I used before this course. During this course I have come in contact with another one called Communitywalk, which I may use in the future. On these sites users can get directions, see how long it will take to get places, plot routes, add several points on those routes, save their maps, share their maps, etc. Online maps is so convenient because it is similar to a GPS. Users do not have to read a huge paper and try to find where they are on the map and where they are trying to go. With online maps, computers can tell users where they need to go from where they are without the user needing to do anything except enter the starting destination, the ending destination, and any special preferences (avoid highways).

Books—

Online publishing is becoming more and more popular. Authors are publishing short stories and excerpts from their books on their websites. Some books are not available in print, they are only published online and can be bought through Kindle, etc. Libraries do not have to worry about weeding, wear and tear on materials, limited space, etc. with online materials. Even expenses would go down because libraries would only need to purchase one copy online as opposed to the several copies that are needed with print materials.

Movies & TV Shows—

Online, movies and TV shows can be available to user no matter what format they were produced in, they do not suffer wear and tear, they can be watched by many users at the same time, users can watch the shows when they want not just when they are on TV, users can also comment on, share and rate movies and TV shows online, etc. Hulu.com is the best one that I have found. It is free and it is not illegal.