Web 3.0 anyone?
Version numbers are being applied to everything, we’re now all being told about Web 3.0. For those of us who haven’t a clue what this might be, how about the ‘Semantic Web‘? Ah, thought you’d heard that one.
I wrote about this previously – What is the ’semantic web’? – and didn’t really understand what it is. Thanks to a few informed Twitter-ites I have a better understanding … it’s all about linked data and linked documents.
Add to the mix this latest article on AdWeek: Web 3.0: ‘Vague But Exciting’. Here they want us all to continue using the Web 3.0 name, where I would rather we use Semantic Web; it is a proper name for a proper shift in culture as to how we use the Internet.
“Web 3.0 (the semantic Web) derives its “wisdom” from software that learns by looking at online content, analyzes the popularity of that content and draws conclusions. Instead of people refining information and opinion, intelligent software would do the same thing.”
This means that we (you and I) need to start labelling and presenting our information in a coherent pattern so it makes sense to machines; Internet content needs to be marked-up in a way that it can be read by ‘software’ and properly categorised for playback. The more Web content written in these languages, the more effective the software will be gathering information and making recommendations for users.
The AdWeek article makes a good analogy using TiVo (electronic television programming schedule);
“Express interest in, say, George Clooney, and TiVo’s “agent” searches for and records any of his movies airing on TV. But it also finds and records content related to Clooney, such as films he directed or produced, reruns of ER, The Facts of Life and other credited work, interviews and gossip items about him, even the “Tears of a Clooney” episode of American Dad that mocked his persona. Now substitute your brand (or research) for “Clooney” and “the entire Web” for “TV,” and you get some idea of Web 3.0’s potential reach.”
There, much better. Anyone for coffee 2.0?
“This means that we (you and I) need to start labelling and presenting our information in a coherent pattern so it makes sense to machines.”
Yes, yes, yes! It’s cataloguing time! 3.0 is all about Indexing, and indexing matters. I owe my favourite quote on the matter to Clay Shirky: “Metadata is worldview; sorting is a political act.”
But…
It’s worth remembering the huge opportunity that will open for spammers if we start indexing. And you can bet that when this gets going, they’ll be on it like a rash. And they’ll probably drown out all our good work immediately.
For more sobering commentary on the potential pitfalls of 3.0, see Bexhuff: http://bexhuff.com/2009/01/the-semantic-web-impossible-in-theory-impractical-in-reality
David, on first read I was going to disagree with your statement “they want us all to continue using the Web 3.0 name, where I would rather we use Semantic Web”. I was going to say that the Semantic Web is a *subset* of Web 3.0, but on re-thinking this, I’ve decided that Semantic Web is the *foundation* of Web 3.0. Intelligent agents and all the other bells & whistles that are associated with Web 3.0 will, ultimately, require meaningful data to work with. Whereas Web 1.0 was the one-way Web (facilitating publishing) and Web 2.0 is the two-way Web (facilitating collaboration), Web 3.0 will be the meaningful Web (facilitating personalisation).