Reaching Web 3.0

When will we arrive at Web 3.0? I really had no idea there were so many theories until I went to my old standby Wikipedia to get some ideas for what we have in store. Over the last year or so I have probably loosely used the term Web 3.0 to describe one great innovation or other a dozen times. For me, Web 3.0 has, to a large extent, been a term to differentiate technologies. I expect this is true on many blogs and in the minds of people everywhere on the Web. In the end, Web 3.0 will be more than the sum of all its parts - it will be mostly the activity of people across those parts. In the end, we will have to reach deeper into our bag of tricks to achieve this next level of achievement.  

Geospatial Web - Huh?

Wikipedia defines Web 3.0 as an evolution of Web usage and interaction along several separate paths including; being transformed into a database , moving towards making content accessible via multiple non-browser apps and leveraging AI - the Semantic Web and the “Geospatial Web”. That is a mouthful expressing essentially what any blogger would when describing Second Life, hakia or Powerset and effectively punting out of having no clue what Web 3.0 will be. All these elaborate explanations really stem from a desire to get past Web 2.0 (still another dogmatic illusion to many). All these terms essentially describe refinements to what already exists to tag something wholly different and more relevant and useful.

Turn To The Experts

Tim Berners-Lee evidently responded to the Web 3.0 question by talking about “scalable vector graphics” folding space atop Web 2.0 - ending in a huge space of data as an unbelievable resource. This is not a direct quote but I think the reader can detect a hint of BS - slung from true intellectual prowess - out of cluelessness. Here are some more “definitive” descriptions of Web 3.0 - well the experts think they are definitive - see if you do.

Eric Schmidt CEO Google - A different way of building applications - pieced together apps that are relatively small with data in the cloud(?), and these run fast on any device. These will be distributed virally - literally by social networks. So, Web 3.0 is all about applications and their disbursement?

Jerry Chung CEO Yahoo! - We are seeing richer devices and richer ways of interacting in game consoles and mobile devices as well as in the software layer. You don't have to be a computer scientist to create a program - Web 3.0 will be a great extension of Web 2.0, a true communal medium where the lines between professionals, semi-professionals and consumers are blurred. So, Web 3.0 is Web 2.0 with some sort of new hierarchy where we are all consumers or professionals or neither?

Reed Hastings CEO of Netflix - Web 1.0 was 50k bandwidth, Web 2.0 is 1 megabit and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits or a “full video Web” - that will feel like Web 3.0! So, as soon as we have more fiber-optic and can download Netflix in 2 seconds - it will be Web 3.0 regardless of whatever else happens - or perhaps we only need to feel like it is Web 3.0?

Okay, I think we can safely say that Web 3.0 should be more than a set of applications or a feeling!

Arguments 3.0

The Wikipedia discourse aims at “innovations associated with Web 3.0″ as the finale for what has so far been a dimly lit path to WTF. AI and more efficient data manipulation seem to top the list of Web 3.0 “cogs and gears”, but we do have some interesting definitions that may actually bear some seed of truth. “An evolutionary path to artificial intelligence” is touted as either systemic or evidence of the advent of Web 3.0. According to this “argument” either AI will form Web 3.0 or be used in a collaborative and collective filtering methodology via intelligent people from Digg. That would be the avent of a WebTwilight Zone in my view.

The realization of a Semantic Web narrows our search for truth in that Web 3.0 will probably use a great deal more descriptive logic and AI. However, it is about time we actually “define” or at least attempt to define Web 3.0 rather than the things that make it up. I hope I am not the only one who has noticed that all this “mumbo jumbo” is really describing tools and methods - not Web 3.0. The Web is not the terminals at the ends of the strings but the people in the network and what they do. If a PC in the forest alone notifies the trees and birds: “You've got mail! Does anyone answer? 3D, mobile connectivity, object oriented interaction, fantastic graphics or any combination of innovation or social networking cannot fully describe Web 1-2 or 3 can they? Is Facebook and “the executable web abstraction layer” really Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 Defined

Web 3.0 will be reached when people are not only empowered by new technology, but directed at activities that actually help them reach their potential. Web 3.0 sites will be places where “substantial” things get done by large numbers of people. Even our entertainment will be more accomplished on any new Web variant. How can we call Facebook a Web 3.0 element even - when nothing substantial is accomplished there? Is hakia a web 3.0 technology before it actually achieves Riza Berkan's intended end? I know his answer to this question.

Web 2.0, or even variant one was about people and a tool they used to do a set - and subsets of tasks. Web 2.0 (hyped or not) has been about new tools sure, but tools enabling people and their connectedness - on task. The point is, the new ability is stalled to rather basal functions of the human potential - we have in effect the slimline phone as opposed to telegraph. The paradigm shift will occur when we transition from communication and collaboration as noise - to using advanced tools expertly, wisely, effectively and with passion towards higher goals is made. In a brilliant article by Jeffrey Zeldman, the author eloquently fashions a similar argument and exits (tongue in cheek) straight to Web 3.0. The lesson here is - we can't simply exit to Web 3.0 - we have to create it first.

Facebook sapphire slippers - can we just click our heels?