The government is taking some cautious steps toward what has been called Web 2.0, letting users contribute to rather than merely browse agency Web sites.

The Patent and Trademark Office is piloting a program to invite online comment on patent applications. And the Federal CIO Council's Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice uses wiki software so that attendees and presenters can post material about the group's monthly meetings.

But these efforts represent only a drop in the federal online ocean, and that caution probably is a good thing.

Web 2.0 is not so much a technology as a way of looking at how technology is used. It is active rather than passive. It is not about viewing or using information, it is about using the wiki model to create and share it. One of the most prominent and successful examples of this model is the online Wikipedia, which defines wiki as:

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