What Does Web 3.0 Mean To You? Would Like To Know What You Think......

I am Irish :p Never heard tell of such caveman language ...

James

..beautiful thing about the Internet is there's always a link somewhere on the page to say "no thanks"... even if not, there's the "back button" built in.

But, I agree with you to some extent... I hope I'm wrong too.. just don't think so. <shrug>

I think this is just a Canadian commercial. But I love it. These corporate executives are sitting around a table having a heavy talk and one of them takes out one of those origami fortune teller things and asks the person next to him to pick a color and number and once he does lifts up the tab telling him his future and it says, "Diverse core assets by quarter three."

...They all look around at each other and start nodding their heads saying that sounds pretty good.

I have a feeling that many a company simply invested a few million in Twitter because they had cash to burn and it seemed like a good idea without really understanding the history of the internet and how previous innovated companies like Twitter have really done. (Usually not too well.)

Zach

Edit: Good post Smokemon.

I'm going to go ahead and double post, because it's been quite a few years since I've both participated in a thread AND contributed to going off-topic like I sorta did here. Sorry bout that and before I head off for the night, I wanted to spend about 5-10mins typing up a more direct response to OP since I think the heart of his question is really, "What are the new/hot/emerging things/trends that I'm going to want to be in on?"

I've always liked that quote. To add to one of my previous posts, I wanted to set out a couple of points people may (or may not!) want to take note of if they're seriously considering being ahead of the curve:

1.) You ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, HAVE to have in-depth knowledge of a subject (especially its history), to be able to best determine the future of said subject. As it pertains to "Web 3.0", take your consumer & marketing hat off for awhile and forget about what you've been told and sold as to what the web is and/or was. Marketers will tell you what something is b/c they want your money. Consumers will believe what they're told b/c they're in it to spend, not to learn. You want to be neither. You need an independently objective view of the web: where it's been, what it is, and where it's going. I could fill a thread w/ resources on the subject but really Google should be sufficient I think. For those relatively new to the web and looking to "see" what it was like before, I usually direct them to archive.org. It really just scratches the surface but should be enough I think to give an idea of the change that's happened in at least a few key areas, like site design and the techniques used/replaced/forgotten/ and the emerging practices that are still done today.

Get a good idea of what the web was in say 1995. Really spend some time on the subject for just that year. Then move on to 1996 or whatever year after that. Keep building your understanding of the changes that are occurring year by year. Stop when you get to 2009. File everything away in your head b/c you're going to be calling on what you've learned in just a little bit.

2.) Define what the web is today. What do we use it for? How do we access it? What's "better?" What's worse? What's made headlines this year? Who are the major players? Who are the movers and shakers? What's going on RIGHT NOW?

3.) Compare everything you learned about the web prior to now, and what the web is today. What's changed? Who's gone? Who's new? There was real concern at the beginning of the web from major businesses offline as to how, when, or why they were going to have a presence online. How did the web change from then till now to facilitate that growth? How did the web gain such widespread use and popularity in such a relatively short amount of time? Why do you think it happened in the first place? Start to identify the growth and evolution of the web as a sequence of overcoming problems and hurdles in the online world. Example problem: The web was somewhat of a lonely place just 15 years ago. We weren't as readily connected point to point en masse like we are today. So what changed?

4.) Understand that advances happen for a reason. Look back at 3.) and, if you did all your research right, you should be able to see that this is definitely the case. People wanted sites like Digg, so people GOT sites like Digg, and everything followed along with it. People wanted something like eBay and they GOT it. Twitter, instant messaging, video conferencing, they are all the same. The need or want arose, the solution filled it, and the technologies used on the back-end already existed, were modified, or were created.

5.) Identify the problems, wants, and needs on the web TODAY. What are the complaints of consumers, users, companies online? What do people want and need for themselves and businesses? How did the web successfully handle things like this in the past? Emulate history. Find some general problems we have today or things in which there is still a lot of room for advancement.

Content delivery and accessibility is still a pretty big one. Google has done a lot to help change the way individuals find things online and how businesses find individuals as well. If little Suzy wants to learn about a SUPER COOL AMAZING HOT TRENDY TOY THIS YEAR she can easily get online and Google it. If Bob wants to sell little Suzy a SUPER COOL AMAZING HOT TRENDY TOY THIS YEAR he can easily set up shop and wait for her to find him. But sometimes Suzy has to wade thru a million marketers like us to actually find INFORMATION and not a sales pitch, and Bob has to bring maybe hundreds of people like Suzy to his site for a dozen or more sales. Is there a way for both Suzy and Bob to get what they are after? You betcha, and it's gradually changing all the time in a hundred different ways all over the web.

6.) Make some intelligent, informed guesses about what you think the web is going to be like in 6 months. Do the same for 1 year off. Then 2 years. Make these conservative guesses since change is rarely as fast or radical as most people tend to believe. Begin focusing on creating a site, an app, a service, a method, or whatever YOU believe is going to have a niche or a place in the web down the line. Toss some "Web 3.0" keywords around in the SE's. Create hype. Create buzz. Stay on top of everything current OUTSIDE OF the marketing world. If you've gotten yourself a good grasp of the net up to this point, AND have done a good job of identifying where it's going in the future, AND have placed yourself out there BEFORE it's happened, then you've already set yourself up to make a killing.

I didn't intend for this to be a guide and I hardly believe it could be considered as one. It's far too broad and extremely lacking in detail given the subject matter. It's how you pick out trends in anything, online or not. What I DO want people to understand though is that the whole Web 2.0 thing is a myth. It's a concept, and it's been flung around as a marketing term (and quite successfully I might add.) There was no Web 1.0. There was no paradigm shift to a Web 2.0. There will be none to a Web 3.0. What there will be is small, incremental changes here and there with a "killer" app or service from time to time. But guess what? Those "killer" ideas simply filled a need or want that was already there, and then marketed themselves well. What is Twitter except txt messaging? That's not Web 2.0, 3.0, 9940323352.0, or anything. That's called smart marketing and we've been doing it forever.