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The advent of Web 3.0

The transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 may seem to be a faster one than from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. The question remains, does this new version of the Web do anything for the end user? Varun Aggarwal reports

Not very long ago, we were talking about the evolution of Web 2.0 and here we are already discussing another new term, viz., Web 3.0. To many, it may sound like another marketing gimmick while others may feel that it is just another name for upcoming Web 2.0 applications. To add to the confusion, major players in the Internet space themselves believe that there is no clear definition of Web 3.0. One thing is for sure; there is a new age of the Web that is about to place its foot in the mainstream and perhaps be the future of the Web.

Prabhu Ram Raghunathan, a research engineer, software developer and roboticist from the Carnegie Mellon University said, “There is no real uniformity of view about Web 3.0, but people take it to include at least a few new things such as extensive video and graphics rich applications, more non-browser applications and non-computer based  devices becoming available, geographic or location-based information retrieval, extensive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), etc.”

A combination of these, such as novel AI usage, could provide not just traditional services like e-commerce at a site like eBay or Amazon, but also composite services, combining multiple services from multiple service providers seamlessly. Another hope is that much of the unstructured data that is on the Web would become structured and queriable or machine retrievable with the emergence of Web 3.0, and this could result in various semantic Web-based applications being spawned.

“Web 2.0 was created out of current technologies that are defining the Internet—AJAX, social networking, blogging, etc. The way forward is still being defined and Web 3.0 could be the Semantic Web or components like IPTV, a social network of applications, and Artificial Intelligence, etc. Eventually it is about making the Internet more intelligent; where Web 2.0 leverages the intelligence of crowds, Web 3.0 would have its own intelligence,” stated Krishna Prasad, Executive Producer, MSN India.

Semantic Web or something else?

Web 3.0’s definition has long been associated with the concept of the Semantic Web. Many feel that Web 3.0 is synonymous with this concept. Having said that, let us first try to understand what the Semantic Web is. According to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) definition, “The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by the W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF).” In other words, the Semantic Web derives from W3C director Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Web as a universal medium for exchanging knowledge. However, there is a lot more to Web 3.0 than just the Semantic Web.

Web 3.0 will feature higher bandwidth, and therefore the possibility of bandwidth-heavy content such as audio and video and possibly widespread 3D, heavily interlinked services, highly localized and personalized services, etc.; therefore the user experience will be richer. Many things that need some skill or a technical background to do today, such as users contributing ad hoc content to Web sites, not just uploading files or leaving comments, will become easier.

Imagine this: Web 2.0 came with RSS feeds, and RSS feeds came with aggregators. Instead, if you had a Semantic Web agent, working personally for you and all the services and “Web as a database” stuff they are talking about now, it would provide you with an intelligent summary of what updates you would like to know, as a cogent article, without your inspecting any feed. Web 3.0 also includes a higher level of ubiquitous computing—or bringing online more and more non-traditional non-computer devices; plus all these services will always be on.

In terms of components, each of the additional services that Web 3.0 is to provide, apart from the Semantic Web, needs its own technologies. For instance, geospatial features need GIS and other location-based technologies. Of course, all of these technologies need tools to enable them to work together smoothly. Raghunathan explained, “Tools like AJAX, fulfilled such a role in Web 2.0. In fact, if Semantic Web technologies are not fully mature by the time the rest of them are, there could still be a Web 3.0. Semantic Web has been ‘in the works’ for a long time now.”

Security concerns

While every new technology tries to address security issues, each fresh technology comes bundled with some of its own security bugs. Web 3.0 may be no exception to the rule.

Raghunathan explained, “Web 3.0 attempts to bring together more services, from various platforms, than ever before. Therefore, it will inherit problems from all such services. Take identity theft. Right now, if someone steals your credit card number from a Web site, all they can do is go on a shopping spree before you call your credit card company.

“In a Semantic Web powered Web 3.0, you will have a uniform, portable identity across a variety of applications and devices—such as your handheld, phone, cell phone, work and home computers, non-traditional devices such as any medical apparatus you may use, etc. Your identity across all these will be cross linked, so that you can get the best use of the various services. If someone steals your id in this scenario, he could take over and ruin your life in every manner; it is no longer confined to a mere shopping spree; they can dip into your bank accounts, mess with your electricity bill, snoop on you and your family and so on.”

Presently, we are only used to spam e-mail and junk phone calls. Additional media delivered through the Web introduces additional avenues for such spam—spam videos, spam “broadband phone calls”, which are far easier to send from a single desktop than through an auto-dialer to landline phones, etc. In such a highly networked, ubiquitous computing scenario, a Denial-of-Service attack will no longer be a mere disruption of access to a Web site or your e-mail service, but could disrupt multiple services in multiple areas in one go.

Still time to come

There was no clear line of demarcation between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, like there was for a new millennium in the Gregorian calendar. It will be the same with Web 3.0. “When it comes, it will be in a phased manner, and mostly organically—some sites and applications will go to Web 3.0, while being interoperable with the previous generation of services at other sites and so on. The year 2009 or 2010 should see fairly wide adoption,” said Raghunathan.

Web 2.0 is definitely catching on; the technology is quickly being tested by numerous players in the Internet space. “It is still too early to say how fast Web 3.0 will catch on but considering the pace at which technology catches on and grows, the day Web 3.0 comes will not be that far,” concluded Prasad.

varun.aggarwal@expressindia.com