On Web 3.0
Last night we covered the announcement of Twine, which aims to be the first mainstream Semantic Web application. Twine founder Nova Spivack showed me a demo of the new app, which he described as a "knowledge networking" application. One of the things I asked Nova right at the end of the interview was his definition of "Web 3.0", a term he has been using in his blog.
While people are (rightly) skeptical of another version number for the Web, I thought Nova's definition was a useful one. He told me that web 2.0 "is a decade and not a technology" - and that it's more about defining the character of each era, rather than trying to define a Web era as a set of technologies. So in those terms, he said web 2.0 = social web and that web 3.0 will be the "intelligent web". By that he means that apps are getting smarter, because data is getting smarter. It's clear he was referring to the Semantic Web - his company is based on those technologies.
As for 'web 4.0', Nova said that will be when AI (Artificial Intelligence) comes into being.
I should note that Nova's definition of web 3.0 is self-serving, because his new product Twine is an "intelligent web" product that uses semantics. Also I am not a proponent of continuing the version numbers - just as 'dot com' is the term for the first era of the Web, and 'web 2.0' the second, there will be a new term that bubbles up at the right time to describe the next era (perhaps 2-3 years from now). Heck, it may even just be called the Semantic Web! However, I liked Nova's way of looking at the meta trends on the Web and I certainly see automation/intelligence coming to the fore in the next Web era - just as "collective intelligence" and socialness have come to the fore in web 2.0. What are your thoughts on this (and please don't focus on the version numbers, because it may well get called something other than web 3.0 when it actually happens).
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I would have though immersive environments would have made it way into the new "3.0" version -- especially considering its impact on education:
Exp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LN5JRl8_sU
Posted by: Rich White | October 19, 2007 11:19 AM
I'm pretty sure it will be WEB3D.0 the term i coined*
;))
Posted by: BillyWarhol | October 19, 2007 11:46 AM
the only reason people speaks about web 3.0 is because they want to be the one who actually coins the term.
Posted by: Edward | October 19, 2007 12:12 PM
Some of my closest friends are researchers in the area of artificial intelligence and the semantic web. When you talk to them they will tell you that the idea of the semantic web and most of its technologies like RDF and SPARQL are pretty old, even more than a decade. Just think of WordNet, the semantic lexicon of the English language, which was started at Princeton University in 1985.
What's really new about Twine is that semantic research results are made available in form of a (commercial) product for the general user.
Don't get me wrong: I really love to see semantic services come into "real life" and I'm fascinated of what Twine has to offer. But I'm also strong believer in the fact that people take the line of the least resistance.
This means: the semantic web can only become reality if it's EFFORTLESS.
To make the progress into the direction of the semantic web effortless, I see only one way: take the best out of Web 2.0 (user generated content, social techniques, consuming news by rss), build a site that's sticky enough to gather most of the users attention data without any extra effort for the user, and build intelligent (semantic) services on top of that data.
In other words: I see an upcoming continuous enrichement of Web 2.0 sites with semantic information (e.g. think of Twitter supporting lightweight semantics in form of microformats) and the more useful services will be built on top of this information, the more the users will get used to semantic services. This leads to the conclusion that there's nothing like a big cut between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. Only continuous progress and enhancement until semantics will be part of our everyday lifes...
BTW: http://yowhassup.com is our contribution to this progress, hopefully a valuable one. Private beta starting next week.
Posted by: Thomas Huhn | October 19, 2007 12:14 PM
Great comment Thomas. I think Twine is trying to do what you outlined, i.e. make semantic web effortless for the people.
Will check out your product too!
Posted by: Richard MacManus | October 19, 2007 12:30 PM
In keeping with Kurzweil, I'd like to propose that the "Web X.0" naming convention proceed exponentially. So the next one should be Web 4.0, and so on.
Posted by: Josh McHugh | October 19, 2007 3:53 PM
Like Thomas I too have heard the term "semantic web" used by various researchers for the past few years and like he pointed it out it is now avaialble in an effortless manner to the rest of the user community.
I guess the next step is about stiching those disparate strands of data/database strewn across the web and making it available to us in a form/format we can understand?
kamla bhatt
Posted by: kamla bhatt | October 20, 2007 11:06 AM
Richard, for me is WEb3.0 will be when GoogleDeskTop Rss Clips is intelligent enough to know howto stop feeding me clips from a specific website /blog .. In the context that when I visit a site and if it enabled with RSS, GDS automatically adds that rss feed into the web clip widget. Now I want to GDS to remove the feed based on my History of visting the darn blog/site or by clicking (previewing) that specific clip ... that to me would be web3.0 or something of that nature !!
personalization +intelligence = web3.0 ?
On a look and feel basis, if its not RIA type it can't fall into a Web3.0 Sphere...
On the underlaying structure if its not Microformat base, tis just a wannbe web3.0 app :)-
If I can't port it to my blackberry / Personal handheld device . it an't web3.0
this is my nano vision of what web3.0 should be !!
oh well, just my 2 cents and you might as well call it webx.0 for all i care :)-
Posted by: /pd | October 21, 2007 9:30 AM
sounds about right. I've often thought that the web is evolving quick enough to have more of a web 3.0 feel already - especially with google...
Posted by: Matt Ellsworth | October 22, 2007 7:49 AM
Here's why I don't get the whole Web n.n thing.
Nobody uses numbers in web applications.
Posted by: John Bailo | October 22, 2007 11:29 AM
I agree with the effortless idea brought up by Thomas Huhn.
I believe the next Web will be in the same spirit as RSS, but a really simple Web, where search is easy (Twine), finding and communicating with friends is easy (Twitter), and posting content online is easy (Jottit).
I once talked to an investment banker that lost everything during the first bubble burst. He told me his main mistake was to invest in advanced technology, where he should have invested in user-friendly mainstream apps.
recently wrote a post about RSweb: Aaron Swartz, Jottit and the RSWeb, the Real Simple Web.
Any reactions?
Posted by: Xavier Vespa | October 23, 2007 1:43 PM
Peter- For some, Web 3.0 will be about personalized feed for what you call infonuggets. For others less connected like myself, the technology and delivery doesn't really matter. The personalization and intelligence does matter.
For example, if you're a horse breeder, Mustang is not likely the Ford car. Web 3.0 sites must know your history and activities, and deliver personalized content.
Computers can remember much more than we can... so that shouldn't be a problem.
Posted by: Sherwin Shao | October 23, 2007 3:28 PM
To me web 3.0 doesn't have anything to do with semantics. It's merely the revolution that is openness. When everyone finally opens their apis and sites are willing to share data freely. Facebook is the closest to this notion. Imagine when data is aggregated without boundaries. When platforms are completely unprotected, and when sites feed off of eachother. Of course it will be mutually beneficial, but imagine the ability for a startup to explode right out of the front gate.
my 2cents...cheers.
Posted by: zach | October 24, 2007 9:11 AM
Web 1.0 - About me - I was the center of the web
Web 2.0 - About you - You were at the center of the web
Web 3.0 - About you, me and the machines - The web has no center. Web and you become one. The web transforms from a network of separately siloed applications and content repositories to a more seamless and interoperable whole. Exceptional insight from Nova himself. We are starting to see this paradigm shift - and granted it will take time for people to understand and absorb the significance of what it means to be seamless.
Web 4.0 - About the machines. We are no longer in the picture. That is rightly as Nova said, AI - finally.
Posted by: Joseph Pally | October 27, 2007 2:50 PM
Zach:
BTW, on Facebook. Segmented applications (like MS Office) were bad enough - with our data scattered into doc, xls, ppt, 10 different google apps, and 20 other websites.
Facebook just made it into scattered applications.
Segmented to scattered is just more of bad news.
Posted by: Joseph Pally | October 27, 2007 2:53 PM