Recently at the Soeul Digital forum, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was asked to define what Web 3.0 is by someone in the audience. Schmidt first joked Web 2.0 was simple a marketing term, and then went on to state that it was really all about the AJAX. I have to whole-heartedly disagree with his statement based on what I witness everyday, but his follow-up definition of Web 3.0 had me nodding:
The Wikipedia page on Web 3.0 already goes pretty in-depth in outlining a lot of things that have been said so far, and features some interesting references from the gods in the industry:
Tim Berners-Lee:
“People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics – everything rippling and folding and looking misty – on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.â€?Jerry Yang:
“Web 2.0 is well documented and talked about. The power of the Net reached a critical mass, with capabilities that can be done on a network level. We are also seeing richer devices over last four years and richer ways of interacting with the network, not only in hardware like game consoles and mobile devices, but also in the software layer. You don’t have to be a computer scientist to create a program. We are seeing that manifest in Web 2.0 and 3.0 will be a great extension of that, a true communal medium…the distinction between professional, semi-professional and consumers will get blurred, creating a network effect of business and applications.â€?Reed Hastings (founder and CEO of Netflix):
“Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0.�
The experts are already having their say — of course, the obvious reward being bragging rights and the whole ‘I said it first’ child-speak. It’s fun to do nonetheless — because no one actually knows what it is going to be, or if there is going to be one, and that’s presuming it’s going to be “something.” What’s Web 3.0? We’re asking you.
