What is the semantic web?
A guy named John Markoff wrote an article for the “New York Times” in 2006 that sparked quite a heated discussion, which continues to this day. He proposed, early in the scheme of things, but certainly not for the first time, that the term “Web 3.0” be used to describe the next evolutionary step of the Internet, which he predicted would be marked by a flood of “intelligent applications.” I don’t want to sound like a 10-year-old on a road trip, but, “Are we there yet?”
No, we’re not, but don’t get hung up on the number scheme; if you did, you’d have to peg progress towards Web 2.6 or so, because the fact is that evolution, of any kind, isn’t all that precise or predictable. Evolution is gradual for the most part, but “punctuated,” as noted paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould observed, by occasional periods of rapid change. In the case at hand, there was a flurry of progress that has now leveled off somewhat, but a key “enabling technology” is the Semantic Web that is still emerging.
What’s in a name (or number)?
Clearly, the Web is moving into a new era, one that features more of those “intelligent applications” that will be strengthened and advanced by adding more semantics to raw data. Does this evolutionary advance, still in progress, really qualify the Web to advance to 3.0? In fact, what does “Web 2.0” mean? Why didn’t anyone call the first iteration of the information highway “version 1”? In the most direct way possible, here is a reasonable description of what the version numbers attached to “Web” actually mean:
Web 1.0: In the beginning (sounds like the beginning of another famous tale) there was AOL, Geocities and Hotmail. The early days were all about read-only content, static HTML websites, and browsing from “link lists” like Yahoo.
Web 2.0: As technologies matured, and people matured, user-generated content and “read-write” interactivity appeared on the scene. People were no longer consuming mothers. Regular people (outside the IT industry) began contributing their energy, information, and ideas through blogs and sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, and the “social networking space.” The line between consumers and content publishers became increasingly blurred as Web 2.0 inched toward the next revision number.
Web 3.0: If implemented in a manner consistent with the most publicized dreams and visions (“plans and strategies,” if you prefer), Web 3.0 will be the Semantic Web. Clarity and utility would come from attributing meaning to data, leading to personalization a la iGoogle, intelligent search like never before imagined, and “behavioral advertising” that is tailored to individual consumers.
Same data, different lens
Certainly the term “Web 2.0,” which never achieved any sort of critical mass outside of the tech-savvy demographic, has at least come to have, over time, a stable definition. We can safely call it a focus on interactivity and interoperability, between applications and people, using custom application programming interfaces (APIs), widgets, and even social actions like tagging. When “Web 2.0” first entered the “digital lexicon”, many people thought it was nonsense and actually ranted and criticized its use.
Today “Web 2.0” is an industry standard term, if not popularly understood, and its history suggests that “Web 3.0” at least has a good chance of adoption, at least as a word. As a “virtual reality” technology, environment, tool, or gateway, Web 3.0 will prosper as our technology and content become increasingly intelligent, individually and together. Adding meaning to data with the Semantic Web and microformats, and adding intelligence to applications, means better helping people through natural language searches, semantic searches, “recommender agents”, decision assistants , etc.
It is a journey, not a destination.
Except for the fact that people like to label things, we probably wouldn’t bother with version numbers on what is essentially a graphical layer of the Internet. It’s always going to evolve, but if we have to call it anything, at least “Web 3.0” is less confusing (and intimidating) than “Semantic Web” for most people. Whatever it’s called, there will be people who know a lot about how it works and where it’s going, and others who know a little to nothing at all. It was always like that, as they say.
Web 2.0 (2.6?) and the first steps towards the Semantic Web are steering the World Wide Web towards a more collaborative way of sharing knowledge, with Gould’s “punctuated equilibrium” being the new social aspect of the Web today. Social media has had wide-ranging social impacts far beyond monitors, keyboards, and browsers. The Semantic Web can bring the Web closer to its final destination of human-machine “understanding” and improved interaction. Web evolution continues without any central organizing authority, plan, or deadline, which is a good thing. At whatever point we stop and say, “We’re at 3.0 now,” it’s still just going to be a milestone, as web evolution, punctuated or not, will always be a journey, not a destination.