The blogosphere once again is buzzing about the new next web. The discussion has been stirred by the panel on the Semantic Web startups at the recent Web 2.0 Summit. Some people call it Web 3.0, others are talking about the arrival of much anticipated Semantic Web and Brad Feld likes to add “Implicit Web” into the mix.
I have written a lot on this topic and obviously, the work that we are doing at AdaptiveBlue is in the same space, so I wanted to offer a few bullets (Jason Calacanis style):
1. I agree that it does not matter what we call the next class of semantic and personalization technologies. We know them when we see them. We do not need another number either. Web 2.0 was cool, and for this reason Web 3.0 is not going to be.
2. Just because one site represents information in RDF does not mean that Semantic Web is next. The startups that are working in the Semantic Web space today are just the beginning not the end. It will at least a decade before the technology will become wide spread enough to even proclaim Semantic Web.
3. Semantic Web as was originally envisioned is a complicated technology. On the other hand, what Brad Feld calls Implicit Web is not. So I bet it is going to be here first. In fact, our work at AdaptiveBlue as well as applications like FriendsFeed are already well on the way.
4. I bet on distributed solution instead of centralized. The single silo can never win, because the web is so much bigger than any single site.
5. Most importantly, the winning plays are the ones that focus on people, not computers. You can have the most sophisticated infrastructure and algorithms behind the site, but unless they deliver real, tangible consumer utility no one cares. Semantic Web is not going to pass for a sexy marketing term.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Alex,
I just have to disagree with one point you made:
The “Semantic Web is not going to pass for a sexy marketing term.”
Oh, it soooo will become a marketing term. And then someone will write a book. They’ll say the semantic web is like, maybe an onion — and, and, and call the book, um….hold on a sec….I knkow…
”The Slow Cooker: How The Semantic Web Is Changing How We Create and Consume Media”
…. And they will use the term semantic and slow cooker interchangeably…. And it will really really be annoying.
:) (and for the record, I’m not kidding)
As always Leigh, a nice point pleasantly wrapped in humor (”humor”, how very American of me).
My fear (and prediction) is that, in the short-term, “Semantic Web” becomes a sexymarketingterm abused by two groups:
1) the echo-chamber that is eagerly looking to apply a sexymarketingterm to ‘what’s next’. Of course coming up with the label will occur before the definition of what’s next.
2) companies that simultaneously are using a plethora of data structures and standards in their application, yet lack tangible consumer utility.
Of course this will totally alter the perception of the word’s definition, eroding the academic definition for the masses.
I guess in part it comes down to most people would have trouble easily explaining the term to their friends (myself included). This leaves it ripe for marketers to take it away and translate it any which way they deem appropriate.
Black Swan - case and point - emergent systems now has become Black Swan. Part of me gets really pissed about stuff like that and part of me is just glad the notion of emergent systems has even become part of the conversation. Makes my job easier when I go into to talk to clients.
But that being said, I keep trying to convince my smart academic friends to get a little bit sexier in their writing so that someone can’t come along later and steal the concepts as if they’re new and as if they are theirs.
Aren’t these slightly different though?
Black Swan became a marketing term for emergent systems, whereas Semantic Web is becoming a marketing term for something that isn’t the definition of Semantic Web.
I see the comparison working well in your other point:
Black Swan is to Emergent Systems like Slow Cooker is to Semantic Web.
By the way, despite the web being huge, it sometimes feels small. I googled “Black Swan emergent systems” because I knew I had read something on this before. 1st result? Your post from July. First comment? Me. And how did I dig into the Black Swan? The SmartLink that has been inserted for the book. Nice.