PSILOG

Just as we're starting to get a grip on things in web 2.0, comes along web 3.0. Not an entirely new concept as such, but nonetheless. As it goes, long live the people who never bothered to figure out what to do with the internet, they'll never need to.

The concept of web 3.0, or the Semantic Web, has been around for quite a long while - coined by the 'father' of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. It's a term you're going to hear a lot more in the time ahead.

Here's an example of what the semantic web is about:

You want to go out to dinner, but you have no idea where to go and your car is in the shop. Using a software 'agent' you issue a command for the agent to search for an restaurant serving Indian food within a 10 mile radius that has a table available on Wednesday evening at 6.30pm. But you don't want just any restaurant, you want a restaurant that has a 4 star rating issued by a well known restaurant critic. Furthermore, you want the table booked and a cab to pick you up from your place. Additionally you want a call to be made to your phone once that's all done; but you don't want to be disturbed by the call as you'll be in a meeting - just for the reservation details added to your phone organizer.

The semantic web isn't a 'new' web. Much like Web 2.0 technologies, Web 3.0 (the semantic web) will integrate with what we have now. It will provide us with the ability to automatically locate disconnected information and act on that information through a variety of devices. 

While much of the information required for these sorts of functions is already on the web, it's not standardized and requires a great deal of manual hunting and pecking, preventing automation. Some baby steps have already been made during the Web 2.0 revolution, for example, the use of tags in blogs and social networks.

In a nutshell:

'The Semantic Web will bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users'

There's an incredible amount of money going into research at the moment to make the semantic web a reality, so it's something we all need to keep tabs on somewhat - those who 'get it' in online business and implement Web 3.0 technology as it becomes more available could do very well. 

One of the most promising companies working in this field is Radar Networks and worked on by Nova Spivack (a visionary genius in his own right). Check it out.

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