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November 08, 2007
Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web... 3.0?
The amazing transformation--both in mindset and technology--of the internet in the last five years or so known as Web 2.0 has been the subject of an overwhelming amount of scrutiny and study. On one hand, the movement has really spurred a new attitude towards web interactivity, creating a more fluid web that brings accessibility to once-distant concepts such as social bookmarking. However, some very notable names, including the creator of the internet (can we say Web 1.0?), have discredited the term as a flimsy attempt to capitalize on innovations that others have already made. Web 2.0, these people say, is nothing more than a bunch of shiny icons accompanied by domain names that cleverly misspell words in order to make a buck. In fact, they criticize, Web 2.0 is actually dumbing down the internet: sure, Myspace is a great social tool and connectivity medium, but it's a downright awful website, reversing years of security implementations in one fell swoop. Why create a Web 2.0, these founders ask, when Web 1.0 was not only working well... but working better?
More after the jump...
In the midst of this argument about the versioning off of such a massive giant, a blogger named Jeffrey Zeldman quietly introduced a term to the blogosphere and stood back to watch what would happen. What if, he asked, we just quit all this 2.0 business and "jump to Web 3.0?" Those who did not eat Zeldman alive for his impropriety simply ignored his creation. There is already an active debate as to the validity of Web 2.0, they said; why should we give any stock to such an obvious attempt to make a buzzword out of thin air?
But perhaps he's on to something, and a few others have bought the hype, too. What was Web 2.0? It was novel, and cool, and altogether sloppy. What self-respecting computer techie would let himself stoop so low as to get a Facebook page? But then again, who doesn't own a facebook nowadays? This sort of separation of utility from quality is a step in the right direction, but true next-gen social bookmarking on the web will only come when websites stop forsaking what they can do for what they've done, and reach out for a new approach to interconnection on the internet... one that doesn't just group a bunch of sub-par websites together and call it the "future".
There are some shining points on the horizon, these supporters of the Web 3.0 concept say. Sites such as twitter are starting to create a stable social platform that reaches far outside the boundaries of the internet. There are plenty more emerging technologies that will one day allow us to use the internet as a desktop to our own virtual computer. Whether or not this will be Web 2.0 or 3.0 is unclear, but we do know that it is a thing of tomorrow, not a thing of today. For so long we have thought that we reached the future, that Web 2.0 was the tomorrow of yesterday promised for so long, but what if Web 2.0 is more than just the ends to the means?
What if these are just growing pains?
:: Jamion Williams
Posted by colldev at November 8, 2007 07:30 PM