Semantic Wave 2008 - Free Summary Report for RWW Readers
Project10X has just released a 400-page study of
semantic technologies and their market impact, entitled
Semantic Wave 2008: Industry Roadmap to Web 3.0
and Multibillion Dollar Market Opportunities. The report discusses the emergence of semantic technologies for consumer
and enterprise applications, and the evolution from Web 2.0 to the so-called "Web 3.0".
A free 27-page summary of Project10X’s Semantic Wave 2008 Report has been made available to ReadWriteWeb readers.
You need to provide your name, email address and answer a few non-invasive questions, but the summary report is well worth it.
The report defines Web 3.0 as "about representing meanings, connecting knowledge, and putting these to work in ways that make our experience of internet more relevant, useful, and enjoyable." In other words, it's the Semantic Web. I'm not a big fan of the Web 3.0 moniker, but I do agree that we've entered an era where Semantic technologies will enhance and extend the current Social Web era. We've written a lot about this on ReadWriteWeb - check out Alex Iskold's Semantic Web: What Is The Killer App? for a recent example.
The report also defines a "Web 4.0", as follows: "Web 4.0 will come later. It is about connecting intelligences in a ubiquitous Web where both people and things reason and communicate together." The following diagram is a good overview of the concepts tying these Web versions together:
Note: I think the number in the top left is supposed to be a 3.
The report correctly points out that the new era of Semantic Apps isn't restricted to traditional W3C technologies. It states that "as a platform, Web 3.0 will embrace all semantic technologies and open standards that can be applied on top of the current Web. It is not restricted just to current Semantic Web standards."
There's some useful discussion on the type of products we can expect in this Semantic Web. For example, on web browsers: "Web 3.0 browsers will understand semantics of data, will broker information, and automatically interpret metadata." We've discussed before on this blog how Firefox 3 will act as an information broker, through the use of microformats and other technologies.
The report also outlines some intriguing future trends, for example on identity: "The trend is towards semantic avatars that enable individuals to manage and control their personal information, where ever it is across the net."
Another interesting trend is "collective knowledge systems", where users "collaborate to add content, semantics, models, and behaviors, and where systems learn and get better with use." Twine and Freebase are two apps that spring to mind here. See ReadWriteWeb's 10 Semantic Apps to Watch for more on this.
Check out the summary report for more, it's an excellent primer on these topics. Thanks to Mills Davis, founder and managing director of Project10X, for forwarding it to us. The full report features 150 case studies in 14 industry sectors, so this is a comprehensive study of the emerging Semantic Web.
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Good read -- sets some expectation about Web 3.0 for the next few years.
I've read the entire report -- over 700 pages. It has more graphics than you can imagine; it's worth the price just for the graphics!!
The report goes beyond Web 3.0-ish trendy stuff, demonstrates how semweb (the Semantic Web) is as radical and revolutionary as was the World Wide Web. SEMWEB IS NOT MERELY A GENERATIONAL, EVOLUTIONARY ADVANCE FROM WEB 2.0 TO WEB 3.0; SEMWEB IS REVOLUTIONARY.
Bottom line: Just as many apps (applications) were first developed for the World Wide Web, the Semantic Web will serve as the framework for just as many (if not more) new applications. It's NOT just Web 3.0; it's about a new generation of better, richer, and smarter applications.
BTW, Mills Davis (the author) and I (among others) are working together to help evangelize semweb; and, all members of this core group are active in the Radar Network's Twine private beta. Matter of fact, we're using Twine for our own demonstration of collective intelligence and knowledge sharing ... or, as I like to call it, "one-click networking and discovery."
Sign up for the Twine beta; you won't be disappointed. And look me up once you get your invitation: I'm "davidlewis". (You won't be able to miss me!)
- David Scott Lewis
Still waiting for my email with link :(
Could someone please kill the horses driving the semantic web bandwagon already? Yes, the AI dream of the semweb is coming, but it won't be here next year and probably not in the next 10 years. Narrow AI in narrow contexts isn't the semweb, it's old school AI. Freebase, Powerset, Twine, etc. are all wet dream vaporware until they deliver clear business value that has $$'s attached.
Sweet! Thanks you RRW.
I agree #4. I don’t see this as really any big deal.
Google will still give you hits you don’t want and didn’t ask for, and so you search again, with your keywords more refined. Semantic web will be the same. Sometimes it will get lucky and be useful. People will argue for years if what’s being delivered is semantic and demonstrative of any understanding, or if it’s just slick programming.
This is just evolution, not revolution. We’ve mastered content delivery (Web 1.0). Social networks are databases (storage) and HTML editors (blogs) combined with the human need to communicate and self promote (Web 2.0). Now we’re just bored and looking for something else to do. Hey lets analyze all the words in all the content everywhere and store it and link all together and stuff, yeah that will be awesome (Web 3.0). Whatever, of the three, I think web 1.0 will continue to be the most useful.
there are some efforts taking shape around the 'semantic' web ..though definitely a far cry from a structured RDF/microformat driven model one was hoping for ...but verticalization should continue to push up the boudaries of semantic web for further exploration ..what might be hard and probably very important will be to integrate the vertical engines with a horizontal experience that google offers
The signal to noise ratio on the semantic web is low, which is a sign it isn't close to being here yet...
@John, AI and semweb are different. I would argue that AI is 10+ years out ... at best. But semweb is coming fast.
@Don, there's a lot of signal, it just doesn't get much media coverage. Just check one of my public blogrolls to see how much is being done in this space: http://www.bloglines.com/public/semweb . Also, check out SemanticReport.com, http://www.semanticreport.com . They should have an article up by Monday that I wrote about Enterprise 3.0 and where semweb fits.
Read my AO pieces to get a better take on where all of this is going: http://doiop.com/Crunchies and http://doiop.com/Twine .
In terms of semantic apps I think there are only a few and most of them in beta, a perception that was confirmed by Alex Iskold's post "Semantic Web: What is the killer app?"
Although this hampers any analysis about the quality of app and its ability to leverage the semantic web, I recently was fortunate to found out about the "SIMILE project", an initiative headed by MIT, with the collaboration of World Wide Web Consortium.
This initiative consists on a suite of apps built with the purpose of showcasing 3 things:
1)To demonstrate that you can build "semantic apps" and what type of apps can, today, better leverage the notion of semantics;
2)"To enhance inter-operability among digital assets, schemata/vocabularies/ontologies, metadata, and services" (extracted from the Wiki's project);
3)To raise awareness that the semantic web will allow another level of unprecedented interaction with the web, whether that interaction is made by machines, humans or simultaneously both.
Although I will try out some of these apps for a project that I'm starting (it's about a personal knowledge management system), It would be good if READWRITEWEB Team could try out and them give some feedback
You can see more information at:
http://simile.mit.edu/
Best regards