Abstract

The article aims to illuminate the character of web 2.0 out of a reading of Martin Heidegger in order to provoke new epistemological questions about web 2.0 and knowledge formation. The article applies the ontological grounds on which Heidegger described being-in-world and worldliness, out from the phenomenon of web 2.0. The article states that web 2.0 could both be considered to be a thing, but also as not being a thing. A thing, according to the character of equipment, the feature of self-sameness and by the fact that it is organized in equipmental nexus which makes it recognizable as a thing from different perspectives. However, it does seem to have unthingly features because of its lack of spatio-temporal fixation, the fact that there is no original and no copies of it, and that it lacks timely orientation. The article further discusses the way the world reveals itself while using web 2.0, and is proposing a new term for this kind of revelation, namely a stretched world. It finally discusses web 2.0 as a place for dwelling, and the epistemological consequences of these features of web 2.0 for knowledge formation. It proposes that research questions should be asked from the perspective that web 2.0 used for knowledge formation is something to act upon while stepping into it.