Comments on: Web 3.0 just around the corner?

By: Semantic Library » World Wide Web Foundation announced

Semantic Library » World Wide Web Foundation announced — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:02:30 +0000

[...] the impact of policy and governance on access to scholarly information online. As I mentioned on my post about Web 3.0 a few months ago, I think it is important to develop a focus on enabling access. We can have all the semantic web [...]

By: Fiona

Fiona — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:12:45 +0000

Thanks for your comments Allan – it is interesting how the terms are being used – I wonder if a reluctance to use terms that are either more popular or more academic will cause some work to be missed.

Great analogy with searching for medication as an example of what the web will be able to do one day!

I’ve been meaning to read that issue of Cataloging and Classification but haven’t been able to find it nearby, It was later compiled as a book, Knitting the Semantic Web. I’ll post a review/summary if I can get a hold of either version.

By: Allan Cho

Allan Cho — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:45:45 +0000

Very astute observations. I agree. However, I find it perplexing that academics tend to subscribe to the term “Semantic Web” whereas practitioners and technology experts tend to refer to “Web 3.0″ synonymously with Semantic Web. For example, the Journal of Cataloging and Classification (http://www.catalogingandclassificationquarterly.com/ccq43nr3-4.html) recently had an entire issue devoted to the Semantic Web – without one mention of the term “Web 3.0.”

Although the dichotomy in the literature is apparent, it’s interesting that for most of us, we associate Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web together. It’s not unlike a decade ago when we used the terms “Internet” and “Web” interchangeably — even though they are not.

In my opinion, Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web are separate entities. Tim Berners-Lee and the W3C envisioned for the Web to eventually become the Semantic Web. Standards such as RDF emerged as early as 1998, long before Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is not even mentioned in the W3C because it has no standards.

But I think it is important that librarians such as yourself join in (and even lead) the discourse, particularly since the Semantic Web & Web 3.0 will be based heavily on the principles of knowledge and information organization. Whereas Web 1.0 and 2.0 could not finely distinguish among Acetaminophen, Paracetamol, and Tylenol — hopefully Web 3.0 will.