At the event, produced by O'Reilly Media and TechWeb, conference moderators John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly will hammer on this year's main theme, which they call "Web Squared." The idea is that, no longer a gee-whiz set of novelty online services, Web 2.0 applications, technologies and sites have become an integral part of the world, woven into the fabric of people's lives, and as such carry a bigger set of social responsibilities.

"The new direction for the Web, its collision course with the physical world, opens enormous new possibilities for business, and enormous new possibilities to make a difference on the world's most pressing problems," reads penned by O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media, and Battelle about the Web Squared concept.

It's a logical progression for Web 2.0 Summit, the seminal conference that chronicled the first signs of the Internet economy's resurgence and explained its causes. Now in its sixth year, Web 2.0 Summit has since analyzed the transformations and disruptions on society and the economy of Web ventures that have become financial powerhouses and mainstream consumer tools.

"If we are going to solve the world’s most pressing problems, we must put the power of the Web to work -- its technologies, its business models, and perhaps most importantly, its philosophies of openness, collective intelligence, and transparency. And to do that, we must take the Web to another level. We can’t afford incremental evolution anymore," the essay reads.

This message resonates with Yvonne Marie Andres, who feels that educational institutions have been slow and reticent to embrace Web 2.0 technologies that can energize and boost classroom learning activities through improved collaboration.