Web 3.0, the next generation Internet

Web 3.0 will succeed Web 2.0, or the social web. As things stand, the web is geared for social interaction and bringing people together - just think of the massive growth of social networking sites like Twitter and Mebo and consider that more people are getting their news from Facebook than Google. Web 1.0, on the other hand, was an information storage medium and nothing more.

Web 3.0 is known as the Semantic Web (semantics is the science of meaning and in relation to Web 3.0 refers to the way the Internet will understand the meaning of things we type into it). At the moment, when we perform a search we are basically typing in a word or phrase that appears somewhere on the Internet: we are searching based on expected results. For example, if we type in ‘tasty pizza recipes’ we are searching for a site that contains the term ‘tasty pizza recipes’. With the Semantic Web, we will type in ‘what are some tasty pizza recipes?’ Web 3.0 will respond by probably searching for pizza recipes, analysing the popularity of certain pizza recipes, analysing comments and social media links, inferring what ingredients make a tasty pizza and analysing your own searching trends to deliver you a customised result. In short, the semantic web will be able to understand the information on the Internet rather than just index it. The tedious process of finding, combining and organising information on the Internet will all be done by computers.

Print is where words go to die

Bang! Print media is dead, and digital media just killed it.

One of the biggest trends today is the slow death of print media. It survived the rough blows of radio and then television to have been knocked out cold by the mushrooming giant that is new media.

The facts say it all: in 1996 just 2% of people read news online for three or more days a week – twelve years later that figure was 37% and is still growing. Digital is taking over from analogue and new media (the Internet, cellphones, MP3 players, digital TV etc.) is gobbling up audiences. Most of this new audience is made up of young people who have grown up with computers, DVD players and cellphones. These ‘digital nomads’ in the 18-24 age set have adopted new media more readily than any other age group, which is hardly surprising when the average child in America grows up with an average of 15 new media devices around them (so say MediaWise).

People like new media because they can choose what they want, when, where and how they want it. It is cheap, easily available and instant, so the moment a big story breaks readers can stay on top of it, instead of having to wait a whole day for the newspapers. Advertisers like new media too, because advertising online is extremely cheap. Whereas a prime time advert on American television goes for $103 000, it cost just a few cents to display an advert online. Advertisers can also measure their success rates online, counting the number of people that see their ad or click through to their site.

The Future is Now

The future begins now. And by studying the past we can make an informed guess about the future. Enter the science (or art?) of futurology – also known as future studies or foresight. Forecasting future developments by studying current trends is not a new field but only took off in the 1960s. In today’s world the future is more relevant than ever because of the huge changes the world is undergoing, especially regarding science and technology: everyone knows Moore’s famous law that states computer speed is doubled every eighteen months. Such advances affect every part of our lives, from work to leisure, communication, transport and so on. Nowhere is that more true than the digital realm, which is influencing every item in the world: think of RFID chipped items in shops, the electronic engine control units in cars, the growing power of cellphones, the phasing out of cheques and paper money and the use of fingers and eyes instead of keys. Think back 25 years and imagine if someone told you that very soon it would be possible to phone someone anywhere in the world without a fixed line; that digital letters could be sent across the world in a matter of seconds or that a whole library of books could be stored on a computer no bigger than a box of corn flakes. You would have laughed at them back then, but now such technology is blasé.

It can be quite disturbing to feel that technology is developing faster than we can manage it or find uses for it, or that the world is going faster than we are. Alvin Toffler called this ‘future shock’: the “dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future.” When things change so quickly, you can’t feel alienated from the present and out of touch with society. The Future Watch will help you avoid future shock by giving you the future now, so you are ready and prepared when it comes barrelling down at you.

With the help of this blog, you can stay ahead of future trends, especially those related to technology and social media. After all, a lot of the world’s technology is aimed at communication (just look at how you’re reading this). We live in an information society where information is one of the most important commodities – just think of the Internet, which is redefining the way people consume news and entertain themselves: news, music and television are all heading for the Internet. The big question today is not “is print dead”, but “what will be the dominant e-book reader? The Kindle, Nook, or iPad?” If you don’t know much about any of them, don’t worry. Just sit back for a rollercoaster ride that will take you to the future.