TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– At many universities, web lectures have become an integral part of the e‐learning portfolio over the last few years. While many aspects of the technology involved, like automatic recording techniques or innovative interfaces for replay, have evolved at a rapid pace, web lecturing has remained independent of other important developments such as Web 2.0. The aim of this paper is to exemplify and discuss the benefits web lecturing can gain from a Web 2.0 perspective.Design/methodology/approach– The paper describes an implementation of three Web 2.0 features for the virtPresenter web lecture interface. These are time‐based social footprints, a mechanism for linking to user created bookmarks in a web lecture from external Web 2.0 applications and a special web lecture player that enables users to embed their own web lecture bookmarks in wikis or blogs.Findings– The paper shows how conceptual and technical obstacles in bringing Web 2.0 features like social footprints to web lectures can be overcome. It also makes evident that linking web lectures in Web 2.0 systems require special adaptations due to the time‐based nature of web lectures. The technical discussion shows that many Web 2.0 features require feedback channels in order to communicate information back to servers (e.g. to understand how the content is used) and that most contemporary media players have to be modified in order to support feedback channels.Practical implications– The paper shows that web lectures can benefit from Web 2.0 ideas and presents examples how Web 2.0 and web lectures can be brought together.Originality/value– Web 2.0 is a popular trend that transforms the way in which the internet is used. This paper shows how web lectures can be enriched with Web 2.0 features and how they can be integrated with Web 2.0 systems by discussing three implementation examples. VL - 6 IS - 2 SN - 1741-5659 DO - 10.1108/17415650910968099 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/17415650910968099 AU - Ketterl Markus AU - Mertens Robert AU - Vornberger Oliver ED - Oliver Brdiczka ED - Lars Knipping ED - Nadine Ludwig PY - 2009 Y1 - 2009/01/01 TI - Bringing Web 2.0 to web lectures T2 - Interactive Technology and Smart Education PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 82 EP - 96 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -