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7 February 2008
The Guardian takes a stab at Web 3.0
Posted by Paul Miller at February 7, 2008 12:18 PM
Do you ever have those days where a lot seems to happen whilst you're distracted by other things? I've just had three of those in a row, induced by circuitous travel arrangements, dodgy network connectivity, a long day spent actually talking to people, a rather nice dinner down by Oslo harbour, and...
...swimming lessons. No, not mine.
So, let's pretend it's Monday again and then I can topically break the news that Jemima Kiss has 'just' (it's Monday, remember?) written a piece for UK broadsheet, The Guardian; 'Web 3.0 is all about rank and recommendation.' Whilst I would never suggest that a paper like The Guardian should make its writers hold a single point of view, it's interesting to contrast Jemima's piece with Anthony Lilley's last October...
Writing in the context of UK success story, Last.fm, Jemima suggests,
“If web 2.0 could be summarised as interaction, web 3.0 must be about recommendation and personalisation. While the Tim Berners-Lees of this world work out how to make the language of the web function more effectively behind the scenes, our front-of-house task is to get stuck in and intelligently work these technologies into our businesses. It is not enough to understand the strategy behind these new applications, such as Twitter and Reddit - they rely on participation.”
We could quibble (endlessly) about what Web 3.0 is, whether it exists, and how it differs from the equally hard to nail notion of Web 2.0. We have certainly seen increased awareness of various recommendation and tracking systems, and these are becoming ever-more sophisticated inside the walls of the silos for which they were created.
The Architecture of Participation really has arrived, but the architects and builders of today are focussing all of their attention upon their own houses, without consideration for the neighbourhood. They're all digging their own wells in the back garden for water. They're all building their own massively over-engineered power stations in the cellar, just to run the champagne fridge and a few light bulbs. They're all going all Capability Brown, and crafting stunning views of the landscape around them, whilst giving no thought to the implications for their neighbours. They're all doing everything, without considering the benefits of appropriate collaboration, and without recognising where their true - differentiating - core strengths lie. The guy next door is a better plumber than you; why not let him lay your water pipes? That power station of yours isn't working very hard at all; why not find ways to let the neighbours use it too?
With the arrival of missing piece SPARQL, the 'language of the web' is ready to 'function more effectively behind the scenes'. As Jemima argues, it really is time to 'get stuck in and intelligently work these technologies into our businesses.'
Tim Berners-Lee wrote last year about the 'Giant Global Graph'. The ideas there, and some of the technical pieces that solutions like the Talis Platform bring to the table, show that the Semantic Web has moved way past 'research' or the endless debate of the standards process. Jemima's 'recommendations' are simply one manifestation of the network of relationships between people and resources; recommendation, warning, review, 'friend', 'colleague' and more. That web of assertions and relationships is something to which the Semantic Web is perfectly suited. Pragmatically and realistically applied, the semantic technologies built into the Talis Platform are just the thing to help real businesses solve real problems that they face out on the web. We're past the early days. It's time to stop digging our own wells and building our own power stations. Utilities make sense, and relying upon them means that you concentrate on differentiating and adding value... rather than spending your days lifting sludge and dead rats out of the well.
Those recommendations and relationships upon which Amazon, Last.fm and others rely? They're far more valuable when they can be used in more than one place. There are other ways to differentiate than by the size of your recommendation database.
Jemima concludes,
“Above all, the most reassuring trend is that the values of credibility and trust are more important than ever in the ocean of information we have to navigate every day. The technology is not enough on its own, and that should be a comfort to editors everywhere.”
Editors, and everyone else. I couldn't agree more.
Technorati Tags: Giant Global Graph, Jemima Kiss, Semantic Web, Talis
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Comments
It's a mainstream media article. Not sure it worths commenting.
Posted by: Peter at February 7, 2008 03:51 PM
sludge and dead rats. mmm. so glad we're moving beyond that :)
Posted by: carmen at February 7, 2008 06:43 PM
