Web 3.0.
Are you ready for the next generation internet?
The internet is an ever-changing media platform and we have to be prepared to adapt to its advancements no matter how quickly they arrive. Web 3.0 is the new phrase for the internet as we will soon know it. From a basic approach to creators of content and now, the blending of online and offline worlds, the web has certainly transformed.
What is Web 3.0 and how does it differ?
LinkedIn Chairman and founder, Reid Hoffman, has suggested the future of the web will be all about data and how we use it. Like many others, he believes mobile will help to define Web 3.0 but data is the main platform for the next online era.
Hoffman claims that Web 3.0 will use two forms of data; explicit and implicit. The former, data users willingly give to social networks, tweets and blog posts; the latter, background data that is collected such as geo-location information.
But it is not just Hoffman who believes that data and intelligence are the main sources of Web 3.0. Many online enthusiasts state the significance of Web 3.0 is its ability to reason and analyze beyond our control. More importantly, the web thinks and does the work for us.
A Semantic Web
The first inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, says Web 3.0 is a semantic web. This term explains the way machines can read web pages like humans; a place where search engines and software can browse the net and find what we're looking for, better than we can.
A semantic web enables new data integration, application operability and makes data openly linkable and accessible in the form of web pages without much effort at all.
Ultimately, Web 3.0 will be about technology thinking of its own accord. While Web 2.0 was defined as 'information overload', Web 3.0 is centered on organizing and filtering the chaos for personal use.
Comparisons:
- Changed users to creators of content
- Previous knowledge on a topic was needed to create content
- Embraces social media, blogs, tags, wikis, RSS feeds
- Rejects passive browsing notion
- Focusing on commentaries
- Folksonomy relating to the contribution from a whole
- Semantic web
- Thinking for itself to connect one application to another
- Me-onomy relating to the individual or the organization.
- Uses drag'n'drop, mash ups, widgets
- Relies on user behaviour or user engagement
- Freedom to publish and reuse the data records with 'data web technology' assistance
When will it arrive?
Upon discussion with Tim O'Reilly and Hoffman, Tech Crunch concluded that parts of Web 3.0 are here now. Like the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, the lines are easily blurred leaving some companies straddling two worlds.
Connection to mobile devices is just the tip of Web 3.0 as it's predicted to go beyond physical engagement. The future web may even connect to cars, clothes and more to provide an enriching, integrated experience.
