Httpd:\\WorldWideWeb.app
No, that’s (httpd) not a typo. Httpd is the name of the first web server, and “WorldWideWeb.app” is the name of the very first web browser, created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web.
In those days, there was different information on different computers, but you had to log on to different computers to get at it. Also, sometimes you had to learn a different program on each computer. Often it was just easier to go and ask people when they were having coffee…”
Tim’s creation has since changed the way people do business, entertain themselves, exchange ideas, and socialize. The first iteration of the web (Web 1.0) was a “read-only web”, users could search for information and read it. The darling of Web 1.0, Netscape framed the web as an extension of the familiar (“desktop”), calling it the “webtop”. A plan which history tells us went down in flames after the infamous browser wars of the 1990s. Web 1.0 hit a turning point when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. Many concluded that the web was overhyped. However, Web 2.0 emerged from the ashes and proved otherwise, delivering the “web as a platform”. Today, there are close to 5 billion active internet users worldwide, and Web 2.0 is at the forefront, satisfying the digital hunger of about 60% of the world’s population (see interactive map below). Two decades later, Web 2.0’s web as a platform has a contender – Web 3.0.
What’s all the flap about?
Web 3.0 is best framed in the context of its predecessors. Web 1.0 was a conduit for information via static pages. Web 2.0 delivers user-centric content owned, disseminated, and monetized by large corporations. Web 3.0 is an iteration of the internet that leverages machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the blockchain to empower individuals to own their data and monetize it.
Tech giants develop and provide applications and services in a centralized manner. Let’s take Instagram as an example. Users on the platform do not own the data they create. Instead, Instagram holds, owns and controls all data residing on the platform. At its core, Web 3.0 intends to shift data ownership, utility, and control back to the users who create the data. The Googles, Facebooks and Microsofts of this world make eye-watering profits from users’ data. Web 3.0 aims to break that domination by dispersing the value in data back to the data owners. In a Web 3.0 based internet, users will be able to sell their data to advertisers while retaining ownership and privacy of their data.
Features of Web 3.0
Open – Web 3.0 will be ‘open’ in the sense that it will be built with open-source software developed by an open community of developers.
Decentralised – Web3 will provide access to user data in a decentralized way. Unlike Web 2.0, data will not be held in centralized locations and monopolised by a few. Decentralization is the foundation of blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. Web 3.0 will converge these technologies and leverage them in a symbiotic relationship.
Semantic Web – The goal of the Semantic Web is to make internet data machine-readable and understandable. Unlike Web 2.0, Web 3.0 will not be driven by keywords or numbers, but it will have the ability to understand the meaning and context of words, enabling computers to better manipulate information on our behalf. Using natural language processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Web 3.0, will be able to understand information as humans do and will incorporate intelligence to satisfy the users’ needs.
Visual Immersion – Web 3.0 will incorporate the concept of the Metaverse, where the internet moves from a 2D to a 3D world. Instead of browsing and interacting with internet content by clicking and flipping web pages on the 2D screens, web content will be delivered and presented to users as 3D objects. Webpages will become 3D spaces into which internet users can step in and interact with other users.
Web 3.0 – The Future of the internet?
The web was intended to be a decentralized system based on a domain name service (DNS). Anyone could buy, own and manage a domain and move it from one host to another with full control and ownership over all the underlying data. That paradigm shifted with the arrival of social media. Our online presence has become more and more centralized on corporate platforms. Web 3.0 promises to change that, which I think many will see as a good thing.
The original thing I wanted to do was make the internet a collaborative medium, a place where we all meet and read and write
Tim Berners-Lee’s internet was to be a collaborative medium, a place where people could meet and read and write. Since that vision, the internet has arguably evolved to become the most important technological revolution in the history of humankind. The ascent of technologies such as blockchain allows for data decentralization. The advances in AI and NLP allow for a semantic web. The concept of the Metaverse supports the vision for a 3D internet. Web 3.0’s underlying architecture has yet to be established. However, the building block of the technology exists and is rapidly evolving. All this sets the stage for an internet that will displace centralized tech giants and replace them with individuals who will be able to own, protect, port and monetize their data rightfully. Berners-Lee’s creation was fuelled by a highly personal vision of the Web as a powerful force for social change and individual creativity. Web 3.0 appears to be promising just that. Web 3.0 is not just a moniker or a flash in the pan. It is a significant paradigm shift that intersects with the lives of 60% of people on the planet.
