Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is one of the terms used to describe the evolutionary stage of the Web that follows Web 2.0. Given that technical and social possibilities identified in this latter term are yet to be fully realised the nature of defining Web 3.0 is highly speculative. In general it refers to aspects of the internet which, though potentially possible, are not technically or practically feasible at this time.

Origin of the term

Following the introduction of the phrase "Web 2.0" as a description of the recent evolution of the Web, the term "Web 3.0" has been introduced to hypothesize about a future wave of Internet innovation. Views on the next stage of the World Wide Web's evolution vary greatly, from the concept of emerging technologies such as the Semantic Web transforming the way the Web is used (and leading to new possibilities in artificial intelligence) to the observation that increases in Internet connection speeds, modular web applications, and advances in computer graphics will play the key role in the evolution of the World Wide Web. [ [http://student.bmj.com/issues/08/03/editorials/095.php Dean Giustini. Web 3.0 and Medicine. British Medical Journal. December 2007.] ]

Proposed expanded definition

Web 3.0, a phrase coined by John Markoff of the New York Times in 2006, refers to a supposed third generation of Internet-based services that collectively comprise what might be called 'the intelligent Web'—such as those using semantic web, microformats, natural language search, data-mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies—which emphasize machine-facilitated understanding of information in order to provide a more productive and intuitive user experience.

Nova Spivack defines Web 3.0 as the third decade of the Web (2010–2020) during which he suggests several major complementary technology trends will reach new levels of maturity simultaneously including:

* transformation of the Web from a network of separately siloed applications and content repositories to a more seamless and interoperable whole.
* ubiquitous connectivity, broadband adoption, mobile Internet access and mobile devices;
* network computing, software-as-a-service business models, Web services interoperability, distributed computing, grid computing and cloud computing;
* open technologies, open APIs and protocols, open data formats, open-source software platforms and open data (e.g. Creative Commons, Open Data License);
* open identity, OpenID, open reputation, roaming portable identity and personal data;
* the intelligent web, Semantic Web technologies such as RDF, OWL, SWRL, SPARQL, GRDDL, semantic application platforms, and statement-based datastores;
* distributed databases, the "World Wide Database" (enabled by Semantic Web technologies); and
* intelligent applications, natural language processing.cite web
title=Cortex Intelligence
publisher=Cortex Intelligence
url=http://www.cortex-intelligence.com/tech Demonstration of Web 3.0
date=December 6, 2007] , machine learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents.cite web
author=Nova Spivack
url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0689.html?m%3D3
title=The Third-Generation Web is Coming
publisher=KurzweilAI.net
date=December 17, 2006]

Research

Research under Spivack's definition

Transformation

Web 3.0 has been described as the "executable web". In the analogy to file system permissions, Web 1.0 was "read-only", Web 2.0 is "read-write", and Web 3.0 will be "read-write-execute". [http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2007/07/web-30-the-dreamer-of-the-vine/] With the still exponential growth of computer power, it is not inconceivable that the next generation of sites will be equipped with the resources to run user-contributed code on them.Fact|date=September 2007 The "executable web" can morph online applications into Omni Functional Platforms that deliver a single interface rather than multiple nodes of functionality.cite web
author=Phil Wainewright
url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=68
title=What to expect from Web 3.0
publisher=ZDNet
date=November 29th, 2005 ] cite web
author=Nicholas Carr
url=http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/11/welcome_web_30.php
title=Welcome to Web 3.0
date=November 11, 2006]

Network computing

Related to the artificial intelligence direction, Web 3.0 could be the realization and extension of the Semantic web concept. Academic research is being conducted to develop software for reasoning, based on description logic and intelligent agents, for example, the "World Wide Mind" project. [ [http://www.w2mind.org/ World Wide Mind project] ] Such applications can perform logical reasoning operations using sets of rules that express logical relationships between concepts and data on the Web. Sramana Mitra differs on the viewpoint that Semantic Web would be the essence of the next generation of the Internet and proposes a formula to encapsulate Web 3.0.cite web
author=Sramana Mitra
url=http://www.sramanamitra.com/blog/572
title=Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
date=2007-02-14] Web 3.0 has also been linked to a possible convergence of Service-oriented architecture and the Semantic web. [cite web
author=Lee Provoost, Erwan Bornier
url=http://lee.webcoder.be/papers/sesa.pdf
title=Service-Oriented Architecture and the Semantic Web: A killer combination?
publisher=University of Utrecht
date=2006-02-10] Web 3.0 is also called the "Internet of Services", i.e. besides the human readable part of the web there will be machine accessible SOA services which can be combined/orchestrated to higher level of services. [cite web
author=John Moore
url=http://www.riaspot.com/blogs/entry/What-the-Heck-is-Web-3-0
title=What the Heck is Web 3.0?
publisher=RIAspot.com
date=2008-07-09]

Distributed databases

The first step towards a "Web 3.0" is the emergence of "The Data Web" as structured data records are published to the Web in reusable and remotely queryable formats, such as XML, RDF, Website Parse Template and microformats. This is also known as the bottom-up approach.cite web
author=Geoff Soumokil
url=http://www.lifecaptureinc.com/articles/web-3.php
title=Web 3.0 & the power of the semantic web
date=July 4, 2008
publisher=LifeCapture Interactive] The recent growth of SPARQL technology provides a standardized query language and API for searching across distributed RDF databases on the Web. The Data Web enables a new level of data integration and application interoperability, making data as openly accessible and linkable as Web pages. The Data Web is the first step on the path towards the full Semantic Web. In the Data Web phase, the focus is principally on making structured data available using RDF. The full Semantic Web stage will widen the scope such that both structured data and even what is traditionally thought of as unstructured or semi-structured content (such as Web pages, documents, etc.) will be widely available in RDF and OWL semantic formats. cite journal
author=John Markoff
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/business/12web.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=254d697964cedc62&ex=1320987600
title=Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense
journal=New York Times
date=November 12, 2006] Website parse templates will be used by Web 3.0 crawlers to get more precise information about web sites' structured content.

Intelligent applications

Web 3.0 has also been used to describe an evolutionary path for the Web that leads to artificial intelligence that can reason about the Web in a quasi-human fashion. Some skeptics regard this as an unobtainable vision. However, companies such as IBM and Google are implementing new technologies that are yielding surprising information such as making predictions of hit songs from mining information on college music Web sites. There is also debate over whether the driving force behind Web 3.0 will be intelligent systems, or whether intelligence will emerge in a more organic fashion, from systems of intelligent people, such as via collaborative filtering services like del.icio.us, Flickr and Digg that extract meaning and order from the existing Web and how people interact with it.

Other potential research

3D spaces

Another possible path for Web 3.0 is towards the 3 dimensional vision championed by the Web3D Consortium. This would involve the Web transforming into a series of 3D spaces, taking the concept realised by Second Life further.cite journal
author=Andrew Wallenstein
url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/features/e3i49998ef2b580e2b5461e3dfb1faedb43?imw=Y
title=Hollywood hot for Second Life
journal=The Hollywood Reporter
date=2007-02-13] This could open up new ways to connect and collaborate using 3D shared spaces.cite journal
author=Terri Wells
url=http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-News/Web-30-and-SEO/
title=Web 3.0 and SEO
journal=Search Engine News
date=2006-11-29]

ocio-technological research

The inclusion of the concept of a "Web 0.0" as the pre-existing real-world "sensual web" has been proposed. In that context Web 3.0 is the development of a series where integration of technologies for digital networking and processing is digested and non dissociable of the new "real-world". In this definition, Web 3.0 is "the biological, digital analog web where information is made of a plethora of digital values coalesced for sense and linked to the real-world by analog interfaces."cite web
author=Tristan Zand
url=http://www.zzz.ch/bootymachine/web3.0
title=Web 3.0 back to the real world / back to our senses
date=June 2006 excerpt]

Quotations

In May 2006, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web stated:cite news
url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/23/business/web.php
title = A 'more revolutionary' Web
accessdate = 2006-05-24
author = Victoria Shannon
date = 2006-06-26
work = International Herald Tribune]

At the Seoul Digital Forum in May 2007, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, was asked to define Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. [cite conference
author=Eric Schmidt
title=speech
format=video
conference=Seoul Digital Forum
date=May 2007
url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0QJmmdw3b0] He responded: quote|Web 2.0 is a marketing term, and I think you've just invented Web 3.0.

But if I were to guess what Web 3.0 is, I would tell you that it's a different way of building applications... My prediction would be that Web 3.0 will ultimately be seen as applications which are pieced together. There are a number of characteristics: the applications are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the applications can run on any device, PC or mobile phone, the applications are very fast and they're very customizable. Furthermore, the applications are distributed virally: literally by social networks, by email. You won't go to the store and purchase them... That's a very different application model than we've ever seen in computing.|Eric SchmidtAt the Technet Summit in November 2006, Jerry Yang, founder and Chief of Yahoo, stated:cite web
author=Dan Farber & Larry Dignan
url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3959
title=TechNet Summit: The new era of innovation
publisher=ZDNet blog
date=November 15th, 2006] At the same Technet Summit, Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, stated a simpler formula for defining the phases of the Web:

ee also

* Web 1.0
* Web 2.0
* Buzzword
* Cloud computing
* Interactive online characters
* Semantic advertising

References