Both my boss Ian Green and Ian Delaney highlighted a recent article from the New York Times about the emergence of what is being termed web 3.0 which on the fact of it seems to be a reference to the W3C vision of the semantic web.
I don't think I fully understand the semantic web but from what I can glean from others' posts the idea is that we are building a way for computers/technology to talk to one another in the same language to help us humans do stuff with the web.
Now that's an interesting one isn't it...?
The over-whelming benefit of social media for me is that it enhances communication by involving a strong human - ie. social - element.
Fair enough the semantic web (as far as I can make out) is of more excitment to programmers and developers than mere users, but as an non-techie end-user I worry slightly that this is all missing the point.
The idea of non-linear ('intelligent') search - discussed the other month here, here and here - is potentially revolutionising the way we provide, organise, find and use content online through tags and social bookmarking.
What really excites me about this is the way the web is becoming more efficient and useful not just through advances in technology, but through advances which allow more human interaction, not less.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that no matter how clever the artificial intelligence is, the fact remains that it is still artificial and not genuine.
Or am I being too "the machines are taking over" paranoid?
UPDATE: Bob Boydston adds an insightful comment to Ian Delaney's original post.
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