User:Davidjcmorris/Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is a term that is used to describe various evolution of Web usage and interaction along several paths. These include transforming the Web into a database, a move towards making content accessible by multiple non-browser applications, the leveraging of artificial intelligence technologies, the Semantic web, the Geospatial Web, or the 3D web. More often it is used as a marketing ploy to hype incremental improvements of Web 2.0.

History

The term Web 3.0 first appeared prominently in early 2006 in a blog article by Jeffrey Zeldman critical of Web 2.0 and associated technologies such as Ajax.

In May 2006, Tim Berners-Lee stated:

“ People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you've got an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you'll have access to an unbelievable data resource. ” — Tim Berners-Lee, A 'more revolutionary' Web

At the Seoul Digital Forum in May 2007, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, was asked to define Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.[1] He responded:

“ 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 been 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. Futhermore, 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 Schmidt

At the Technet Summit in November 2006, Jerry Yang, founder and Chief of Yahoo, stated :

“ Web 2.0 is well documented and talked about. The power of the Net reached a critical mass, with capabilities that can be done on a network level. We are also seeing richer devices over last four years and richer ways of interacting with the network, not only in hardware like game consoles and mobile devices, but also in the software layer. You don't have to be a computer scientist to create a program. We are seeing that manifest in Web 2.0 and 3.0 will be a great extension of that, a true communal medium…the distinction between professional, semi-professional and consumers will get blurred, creating a network effect of business and applications. ” — Jerry Yang

At the same Technet Summit, Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, stated a simpler formula for defining the phases of the Web:

“ Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0. ” — Reed Hastings

The term Web 3.0 became a subject of increased interest and debate from late 2006 extending into 2007.

Innovations associated with "Web 3.0"

Web-based applications and desktops

Web 3.0 technologies, such as intelligent software that utilize semantic data, have been implemented and used on a small scale by multiple companies for the purpose of more efficient data manipulation. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing focus on bringing semantic web technologies to the general public.

Web 3.0 debates

There is considerable debate as to what the term Web 3.0 means, and what a suitable definition might be.

Transforming the Web into a database

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 and microformats. 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.

An evolutionary path to artificial intelligence

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.

The realization of the Semantic Web and SOA

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. 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.

Web 3.0 has also been linked to a possible convergence of Service-oriented architecture and the Semantic web.

Evolution towards 3D

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. This could open up new ways to connect and collaborate using 3D shared spaces.

Web 3.0 as an "Executable" Web Abstraction Layer

Where Web 1.0 was a "read-only" web, with content being produced by in large by the organizations backing any given site, and Web 2.0 was an extension into the "read-write" web that engaged users in an active role, Web 3.0 could extend this one step further by allowing people to modify the site itself. 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.

Proposed expanded definition

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., machine learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents.

See also

Applications

• Composite applications
• Internet
• Recombinant text
• Semantic Web
• Service-oriented architecture
• Web 2.0
• Web operating system
• Web Mining
• World Wide Web

Theories

• Intelligence
• Cooperation

Related keywords

• Semantic Web
• Data Web
  • Hyperdata
  • Linked Data
  • Open Data
• Computing
  • Artificial intelligence and Ambient intelligence (AmI)
  • Wireless ubiquitous computing
  • Multi-core (computing) and Manycore processing unit
• Communication

External links

• Heather Green A Web That Thinks Like You, Businessweek.com, July 9, 2007
• Michael Copeland Weaving the Semantic Web, Business2.com, July 3, 2007
• John Borland A Smarter Web, www.technologyreview.com, March 12, 2007
• Stephen Baker Web 3.0, Businessweek.com, October 24, 2006
• Dan Warne Mozilla working on Web 3.0: web apps that run offline too, APC Magazine, May 7, 2007
• Web 3.0 Technology, Java Jazzup Magazine, September 1, 2007
• Juan Carlos Ibarra, Netroots Vision: Content Management Systems and Web 3.0, www.civilrightstheory.org, August 16, 2007