Innovation and Web X.0

Daniel Scocco, author of the InnovationZen blog, asks “Does the semantic web deserve to be called Web 3.0?”  This is an interesting question deserving some broader examination.

The term Web 3.0 has been used in association with the W3C semantic web initiative for quite a while now.  The term has already gained some traction in the venture community where people are always looking for the next big thing to chase after with lemming-like efficiency.  Does the W3C semantic web deserve this moniker?  Only time will tell, but I suspect it will suffer the same gradual decline in to obscurity that the much ballyhooed arrival of DTDs did in the past for many of the same reasons.  I think a more interesting question is “Who cares?”  The novelty of labeling things <noun phrase> X.0 has long worn off, and the continued practice gets in the way of informed dialog around core issues of value. 

Consider, if you will, the current Web 2.0 area.  The term Web 2.0 was coined by my friend Tim O’Reilly to define a particular shift in the paradigm of how applications are defined by control of the data and the associated phenomena and implications of that shift.  The term not only stuck, but it took on a life of its own.  However despite the glamour and buzz around Web 2.0, the reality on the ground is not so pretty.  I attended a recent MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge event, “Brave New Web: Connect. Contribute. Collaborate.”, focused on Web 2.0.  A few themes emerged very rapidly:

• Practitioners in the space are struggling because the monetizability of user contributed content is unproven.  This issue was recently mentioned in a New York Times article.



• Attention drawn to the model is undeserved because the few-and-far-between mega deals that attract notice are temporal anomalies resulting from the current web turf war as a handful of key players fight to carve up the landscape.



• Most practitioners would like to find a path away from the consumer facing space and in to the commercial facing space where they believe greater potential for viable revenue models exists.

It is always tempting to plant the flag on what we perceive as new territory.  But, it is important to not become trapped by such meaningless conventions.  We should understand that all the things we have seen in the evolution of the web are just that, evolutionary steps, and nothing more.  The web will continue to evolve at an increasingly brisk pace.  There are many new web trends that have emerged since the term Web 2.0 was first uttered, and many more are coming.  The web today is not what the web tomorrow will be.  How will we deal with so many iterations?  Can we look forward to Web XP?  I hope we can do better.