Sunday, April 8, 2007
The Third Wave...Web 3.0 Already?
"The Third Wave" is an article from the April 2007 issue of Entrepreneur magazine. According to the author, even if you're just getting used to Web 2.0, the next generation is approaching quickly. The next generation of web technology is referred to as the semantic web or Web 3.0. The idea behind Web 3.0 is the ability to make data on web pages and other online databases more easily understood by computers. Thus, allowing the computers to do more work on our behalf. In addition, it will make it easier to share information between software applications. "The semantic web will do for data what the web did for documents. It will make it universally searchable and sharable." said Nova Spivack who started a company that's on the cutting edge of Web 3.o. Part of the big picture of the semantic web is to revolutionize Web 2.0-style tagging. If all data was tagged in a consistent way throughout the web your computer, for example, could scan the web for updates and keep a current list of addresses for customers. Your calendar software could even communicate with your online banking to automatically make you aware of banking activities. The standard way to organize data on the semantic web is explained by the Resource Description Framework (RDF) which is comparable to Web 2.0's HTML. However, this format is expensive and hard to use at the present time. Practical application for this type of technology is with search tools, especially in regards to corporate websites. This next opportunity will be building applications for the use of semantics and in as little as two to three years the first big commercial success should appear.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
The idea behind Web 3.0 sounds a lot like the P3P concept we discussed in class: instead of users having to read lengthy and confusing privacy policies for certian websites, their browser can just read tags in the site's HTML that explains the policy. The browser will decide whether or not display the site based upon the privacy settings the user has set up in the browser.
As was mentioned in the article, however, this can be pretty expensive; it would be difficult to set up a uniform method of tagging across the Net.
If the system is sucessfully created, however, it would be very interesting to see how it affects the way we use the Net. Perhaps one day the Web will become so "smart" that we won't have to "surf" it anymore - everything we want would be right before us. As convenient as that sounds, however, we don't think it would be nearly as fun. Interesting article.
I knew it wouldn't be too long before Web 3.0 was on its way in the internet door. Ideas and technology change quickly and people want to see improvements. From what it sounds like right now I don't see myself personally benefitting from web 3.0 database technology, but maybe I will more than I think. Im sure there is alot of work that needs to go into developing the new web 3.0 platform, especially since web 2.0 hasn't fully adapted yet.
Wow, this boggles my mind. Web 3.0 already. I just learned about web 2.0 and am still getting the hang of how to explain it to other people. I wonder why it is that they need a number for a change in technology. It has to be a way to market the fact that you are an up to speed site. It is almost like bragging rights that let the consumer know you try and stay ahead of the game as an online company. I hope it does help things become more efficient on the web which I'm sure it will.
Post a Comment