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DEL.ICIO.USWeb 3.0: More than just a name
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What the heck is Web 3.0 and how does it differ from where we are now? And should it really be called 3.0?
For starters, there are many people who question whether the buzz phrase “Web 2.0” is really warranted. They feel that areas of development such as social networks like MySpace, Google Maps, open-source and browser-based software programs, wikis, and search tools like Yahoo Answers are just natural extensions of what the Web was designed to be.
Let’s go to the expert, the man who invented the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee. Just last week in a podcast Berners-Lee told IBM: “Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is of course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along.”
While Berners-Lee admires the effort in so-called “Web 2.0” innovations, he and others already are looking further ahead. “The Web is only going to get more revolutionary,” he said May 23 at the opening of the International World Wide Web Conference. “Twenty years from now, we’ll look back and say this was the embryonic period.”
So what is going on? Not as catchy a phrase as Web 3.0, but Berners-Lee is focused on “the semantic Web.”
Look elsewhere for a technical explanation, but in layman’s terms it means: Sites, links, media and databases will become “smarter,” integrating more seamlessly with other databases. First, though, the World Wide Web Consortium, which Berners-Lee heads, has to ensure standards are set.
How would this work? Berners-Lee gave an example at the conference. An attendee could click on a link and get an invite on their electronic calendar. Location information could be sent to a GPS device, and the names and biographies of other invitees could be sent to an instant messenger list.
The 1990s was the Web of documents. The future is the Web of data. “People keep asking what Web 3.0 is,” Berners-Lee told The International Herald Tribune. “I think maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.”
Whatever that means to the average user, let’s just say it will be cool. And it’s getting closer by the day. Blogger Mike Elgan on Personal Tech Pipeline writes that a glimpse of the future is already here. He points to a site called Tourbus.
“Tourbus scans your iTunes playlists, then constructs a custom RSS feed alerting you to when your favorite bands are coming to town — in plenty of time to buy tickets. It also does a bunch of other intelligent things, such as populates your calendar with shows and events you might be interested in, and recommends activities based on your interests,” Elgan wrote. He wonders what would happen if someone could figure out how to take it to the next level — “an artificial inteliigence concierge,” that finds exactly what you want from the Internet on everything, even learning and adjusting to what you like or dislike.
And Phil Wainewright on ZDnet detailed last year how “Web 3.0 is going to deliver a new generation of business applications.”
Call it what you want, Web 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever, but exciting days are ahead.
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