What’s Next? A Glimpse into Web 3.0 ~ It’s All Semantics.

“We have to get better at believing the impossible” – Kevin Kelly

Anyone who’s been around for a few years and is perhaps approaching a certain age, has an intimate understanding of the changes that have taken place on the Internet over the last couple of decades. Evolving from not having an Internet at all, to the original incarnation of the World Wide Web, through to what we now call Web 2.0 with it’s astounding interactivity, it’s sometimes hard to imagine how this online world could possibly improve from here. Well, the answer lies in semantics, the key to Web 3.0. And the technology to make it happen is right here, right now.

The evolution of the web

So before we get into Web 3.0, let’s take a step back in time and see where we’ve come from and revisit the Internet, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 and get a good understanding of the differences between them.

The Internet is, at its most simple, a network of networks of computers. The advent of the Internet allowed computers to have a voice, letting them connect and talk to one another. The World Wide Web is like an enormous document storage and retrieval system that operates on the Internet, allowing us to quickly and easily retrieve and view information. Documents are written in the language of HTML (Hypertext Mark-Up Language) which tells computers how to display documents for us to see.

In its earliest form, the Web (retrospectively called Web 1.0) consisted of clunky, static webpages which only web designers could access and create. For users, all we could do with Web 1.0 was read. We were simply fed information with minimal opportunity to respond and interact.

Web 2.0, on the other hand, is all about interactivity. It’s all about the conversation. Through new technologies which have provided tools of publication that anyone can use, Web 2.0 embraces user generated content, participation and exchange of ideas without the need to know complex code. It’s about blogs, social networks, wikis, tagging and RSS feeds, just to name a few examples.

What next? Well, that’s where semantics come in.

So what are semantics?

“Semantics” is a word used in the study of language. It is related to the word syntax which defines how something is said, incorporating, for example, the words, letters and punctuation of a sentence. Semantics, on the other hand defines the meaning behind what is said, i.e. what a sentence actually means when it is read.

As we discussed earlier, the Internet gave computers a voice, however computers currently only mimic human information from one to another in the same way that a parrot mimics human speech. The Internet was not designed to teach computers what the information actually means. While they understand the syntax (HTML), the semantics are lost on them. The Semantic Web helps computers understand the meaning behind the web page and once they understand the meaning, they can learn what we’re interested in and help us get what we want. Computers will evolve from passively helping us to actively helping us.

the Internet links machines ~ the Web links pages ~ the Semantic Web links ideas and things

The Semantic Web is a Web of things and concepts. Computers not only start to understand what these things and concepts mean, but how they are related to each other. Understanding meanings and relationships results in more meaningful links. Connections between things and types of things are made because the Semantic Web takes us beyond simply the keyword – the information is understood. For example a keyword search for “apple” could currently return webpages for fruit or computers. With the Semantic Web, the computer understands there is a difference and targets what it is you really want.

The embodied web

The introduction of semantics is just one of the ways that the Internet as we know it is expected to change as we roll into the era of Web 3.0. One of the other major predicted changes is that the Web will stop being only on computers and will become mobile, embedded and embodied. Already we are seeing mobility in devices such as mobile phones and iPads but future technology is likely to extend from computers and other devices to all things becoming part of the Web. Tiny microchips called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags operate in a similar way to barcodes, and can attach data signatures or IP addresses to every conceivable object from cars to cornflakes, passports to pyjamas. Clothes, for example, could carry chips which give instructions to your washing machine, preventing the cycle from starting if the water is too hot. Your alarm clock can talk to your calendar. A burst water main can redirect traffic. The possibilities are endless. Our physical world will converge with the digital world. The Web will not be something that exists only within our computers but will be something we live within. Everything in our physical world will be connected to the Web.

If these ideas fascinate you as much as they do me, I highly recommend the following video from Kevin Kelly. The length of the video might look a little daunting but his main speech only goes for 23 minutes. Bear in mind, and amazing as it may seem, this video was produced 3 years ago in February 2008.

So how does this future direction make you feel? Does it terrify you or excite you? Is this Big Brother watching us? Are we getting to a stage that we no longer need to think for ourselves? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Perhaps getting computers to handle the mundane might free up our thinking power, allowing us to become more creative beings. And rather than machines becoming an extension of of the human senses, are we, as Kelly suggests, rapidly becoming the extended senses of the machine?

Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

See you in the future,

Further Reading: The Semantic Web ~ Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler & Ora Lassila