What “Web 3.0″ (or maybe Web 2.5) might look like…

For quite some time, I’ve been using, consuming and generally playing around in the sandbox of what some may call “Web 2.0.” The term seems to have some weight and power behind it. Tim O’ Reilly tried to define the space and what makes 2.0 different from its 1.0 form. The major difference touched on by this article is the ability of users to control their experience online. This second generation of web development is defined by the read/write capabilities of users on the site. The web is now editable and can express any point of view in real time. However, we’ve been using this technology for almost five years. Therefore, it is fair to assume that there may be a change in how we conduct ourselves online. The question is how? 

I think it is important to compare how the web has developed to the development of a society. For a society to develop, there must be a common language and standard set of rules that everybody agrees (“a social contract”). The development of transferring digital information through copper and fiber-optic lines, web addresses, programming languages and hardware set up the first stage of this society. This infrastructure could be compared to the development of the basic “survival tools” of the society. We learn to make fire and build shelter in the digital world through the structure developed by the founders of the Internet. We survived primordial ooze for almost 15 years. Then, we moved to the pushing the envelope of creation by add modules to the language of the Internet to allow for a democratization of the channels present in the World Wide Web.

According to Paul Graham the force behind “Web 2.0″ came from three factors; the root language Ajax, the democratization of the web and the knowledge to not mistreat those using the web. Under these three forces, the concept of web as platform could begin. We’ve lived, worked and played in this environment for several years. However, it’s starting to feel that the platform will need to turn into something else to survive and to allow companies and individual to profit from their work. The next construct of the web will come from economic concern maybe more so than the ability to change the platform through technological / linguistical / mechanical means.

This ability to change the platform is why I believe that whatever the future holds for the web, it will depend on three concepts; the interface of control, the level of access and the ability of others to build. These concepts are why I believe that the next phase of the web will be the “web as social artifact.” We are slowly coming to this crossroad. There is an archive of our collective works online available. We seek a different way to preserve the past, as a librarian looking to maintain a record of the works of man. I believe we as a connected society will choose less to play with the platform and create into a sandbox for other to play in and more to use the web as a way of leaving our mark on the planet.