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Market ing and Web 3 .0

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Web 3.0: In which we’re a l l replaced by art i f ic ia l inte l l igence

Remember the Walkman™, that beat out the boom box, that turned into the

Discman, that led the way for the MP3 player, that got eaten by the iPod™? It’s

the perfect example of evolution. Perhaps not exactly the kind Darwin

wrote about, but still … the Walkman demonstrates the spark of a

culturally driven, technological evolution.

Just like the World Wide Web.

The Web is constantly changing as people innovate, as the demand for

information ebbs and flows, and as cultures shift. The Web that Sir Tim Berners-

Lee launched in 1989 is not the Web we know today, nor is the Web today what it

will be tomorrow.

Tech enthusiasts, Web developers and others are providing a veritable cacophony

of exciting conversations on new innovations and new processes that are being

explored and implemented. Innovations and processes that will no doubt change

the Web as we know it. At the same time, however, there seems to be an absent

narrative in the conversations of tomorrow’s Web—those who stand the most to

gain (and the most to lose) simply aren’t at the table.

Marketers, we’re looking at you.

Many marketers are still trying to come to grips with the Web as it stands

now: Leveraging data, building websites with SEO in mind, and trying to turn

customers into fans all the while wondering just how to measure the ROI of a

tweet posted six months ago. But, if businesses hope to continue to be relevant

with audiences, take on competitors and get the most out of marketing dollars,

marketers from small businesses to large corporations need to know what’s

around the corner.

The next generation of the Web as we know it is not just about learning how to

do something new or different, it’s about enhancing what tools we already have.

It’s about taking advantage of the potential opportunity that this new Web offers

to enhance communication, make engagement more meaningful and increase

relevancy among target audiences.

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The World Wide Web: A br ief h istoryIn order to begin to understand the concepts of where the Web is going, it’s best

to become familiar with where the Web has been and is currently:

Web 1.0 and 2.0.

Web 1.0: 1990 – 2000

As mentioned, Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web 1989—although

it’s often said that he invented the Internet, this is not technically the case. At

the time, Berners-Lee was working for the European Organization for Nuclear

Research (CERN) and, like many scientists at that time, was frustrated that there

wasn’t a uniform way to access data on one computer from another. He used

processes and information previously identified by his peers, like Internet Protocol

(IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Domain Name System (DNS)—

which was the basis for e-mail—to build the World Wide Web (WWW), in order to

share information across computers and the globe.1

For his idea to work, though, he had to convince others to join the Web by using

the same type of HTTPs, URLs and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML code). As

interest grew, so did the concept of the World Wide Web. Users slowly shifted

from those in the scientific community to the masses and as this happened,

people tried to figure out what the technology meant. During this stage of the

Web, people developed their own HTML websites, businesses found a virtual

place to showcase inventory, while Yahoo!TM, AltavistaSM and AOLSM made the

Web a popular place to hang out and find static information.

This stage of the Web was all about searching for online viability.2

Web 2.0: 2000 – Present

Once people and businesses started to get their bearings, the Web

morphed into something more useful, more entertaining and more

collaborative than ever imagined. Users developed networks, enhanced

interactivity, connected through social media, and grew business with crowd-

sourced content. First Google™, eBay™, YouTube™, BloggerSM and Wikipedia™,

followed by FacebookSM and TwitterSM, ruled the Web. Originally the name of a

conference, Web 2.0 became an all-encompassing term for the stage of the Web

that is all about user-generated content, multimedia, information sharing

and collaboration.

In Web 2.0, the Web experienced a social change … but most of the technology

stayed the same. That’s where the next stage begins.

1 Berners-Lee, Tim. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Web. 05 May 2010. <http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Kids>.

2 Bijlbrand. “Web 3.0 Explained with a Stamp (pt I: the Basics).” SlideShare. Web. 05 May 2010. <http://www.slideshare.net/freekbijl/web-30-explained-with-a-stamp>.

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The r ise of Web 3.0Essentially, the next stage of the Web involves the previous incarnations of the

Web becoming more intelligent. Some people call it Web 3.0 while to others it’s

just the Web, evolved. A Web-olution, if you will. Either way, there are elements

of this next Web that are already apparent and especially relevant to online

marketers and communicators, such as:

• Linked Data, intelligent search

capabilities and the Semantic Web

• Open source, OpenID™ and Open Graph Protocol

• Artificial intelligence

• Software as service and cloud computing

These technologies work together to make the Web a more engaging and useful

place for all users, yet these technologies will also pose particular opportunity to

businesses and organizations wishing to reach and interact with their audiences

and constituents. Read on to find out just what these technologies are, how they

stand to affect your business and what pioneers are doing with Web 3.0 right

now so that your business can take the leap to the next evolution of the

Web, today.

L inked Data, inte l l igent search and the Semantic WebIf Web 1.0 was about linking pages and Web 2.0 was about linking people, then

Web 3.0 is about linking data. The Web in its current form is more or less a giant

collection of documents—documents that are indexed by search engines and

searchable by keywords. The thing is, these search engines can’t tell if a person is

searching for Phoenix the band versus Phoenix, Arizona or, as a common analogy

for describing Web 3.0, a red stamp versus stamps from the Red Sea.

Linked Data aims to increase the usefulness and the relevancy of the information

on the Web by structurally describing content and relationships to other content

instead of just utilizing keywords. This is accomplished primarily through datasets

that are interconnected in order to make sense of the plethora of information

available on the Web. Instead of searching “Phoenix” a user could tell a search

engine, “Find me bands sharing a name with a city that have had hit songs on

the charts within the last five years.” Or, instead of searching “red stamp,” a user

could tell a search engine, “I want to see every red stamp to come out of the U.S.,

Italy and France in 1976.”

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Barney Pell, president of Web company, Powerset, calls the restrictive language of

current search engines “keywordese.”3

“Search engines try to train us to become good keyword searchers.

We dumb down our intelligence so it will be natural for the

computer,” said Pell. “The big shift that will happen in society is

that instead of moving human expressions and interactions into

what’s easy for the computer, we’ll move computers’ abilities to

handle expressions that are natural for the human.”4

Although the concept of Linked Data goes back slightly further, the movement

started to gain serious momentum in 2009 and since then many platforms and

datasets have already popped up across the Web, linking data that has been

available previously but never before connected. For example, Google currently

pulls together universal search by considering, a user’s search history, Google

content and products to provide relevant results to the user. Sites like www.Evri.

com, www.Infochimps.com and www.OpenCalais.com find popular articles on the

Web and link them to other relevant articles based on topic and content, or when

a shopper makes a purchase in an online storefront, the website may recommend

similar products to add to a cart or during a subsequent visit.

As Web 3.0 continues to grow so too will the power of Linked Data. From a user

standpoint, Linked Data increases the value of the Web exponentially—just think

of all the time saved paging through millions of search results to find the one

relevant article. Linked Data can also offer users context and connection for the

information they are seeking. From a marketing perspective, Linked Data offers

opportunity in increased measurement and market research capabilities, along

with a shift in the way content for websites is approached—the search engine

optimization game is no longer just about which company has the best keywords,

but which company truly has the most relevant information.

So how does a business get started with Linked Data? For starters, its Web

developers and marketers should be well-versed in World Wide Web Consortium

(W3C) standards, particularly those pertaining to Linked Data. Berners-Lee, who,

go figure, heads up the Linked Data shift through the W3C project, has identified

its four principles5:

3 Olsen, Stefanie. “Spying an Intelligent Search Engine.” CNET News. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://news.cnet.com/Spying-an-intelligent-search-engine/2100-1032_3-6107048.html>.

4 Olsen, Stefanie. “Spying an Intelligent Search Engine.” CNET News. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://news.cnet.com/Spying-an-intelligent-search-engine/2100-1032_3-6107048.html>.

5 MacManus, Richard. “Linked Data Is Blooming: Why You Should Care.” ReadWriteWeb. 18 May 2009. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linked_data_is_blooming_why_you_should_care.php>.

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1. Uniform Release Identifiers (called URIs; URLs are a type of URI) are

used to pinpoint things a person offers to the Web as a resource

2. HTTP URIs are used so that people can locate and look up

these resources

3. Useful information about the resource is provided when it is referenced

4. Links to other, related URIs in resulting resources (the data) are

included as a means of improving information discovery on the Web

Beyond these principles, businesses need to understand the broader concept of

the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is part Linked Data and part … well …

semantics. Specifically, “the language for recording how data relates to real

world objects.”6

This language is based on what is called the Resource Description Framework, or

RDF. RDF is an XML-based standard (Sorry! Lots of acronyms: one way to think

of a XML link is a more advanced form of HTML and is used for feeding data.)

for describing the relations of things on the Web, building on existing XML and

URI technologies. Essentially, they are statements made in the code of websites

that describe a resource, its properties and the value of those properties. Called

“triples,” these statements consist of a subject, a predicate and an object that

correspond to a resource, a property and a property value.7

Kind of like this:

[resource] [property] [value]

[The president of the U.S.] [is] [Barack Obama]

Then, based off of this set of triples, other sets are added to further define the

resource and its relation to other resources. This code also creates an identifier

that subsequent Web developers can then use as well to link their own relevant

resources to.

Other technologies like Web Ontology Language (OWL), RDFa, RDFs, Simple

Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), Dublin Core, Creative Commons and

SPARQL—which is an RDF query language—and more work together with or build

6 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Web. 17 May 2010. <http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/>.7 “What Is the Semantic Web?” XML Editor, Data Management, UML, and Web Services Tools from Altova. Web.

08 May 2010. <http://www.altova.com/semantic_web.html>.

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off of RDF to make the Web more robust and functional and search results more

relevant, more intelligent.

As all those languages sound confusing, let’s nutshell this—Linked Data and the

Semantic Web will impact the Web so that in the future:

• Web information has exact meaning

• Web information can be processed by computers

• Computers can integrate information from the web8

As marketers, we need to recognize that the ways in which we provide

information to our customers, along with the ways in which we conduct research

and learn about our customers, is going to shift. Web 2.0 is still pretty linear—it’s

push and pull between businesses, marketers, brands and audiences and search

results are still more or less a listing of documents. With Linked Data, the Web will

no longer be linear. It will be Web 2.0 on steroids. It will be so jam-packed with

data that is connected to other data that will show us connections we did not see

before. As marketers, we will be able to use this data to advance market research

and product development. We will make correlations and causations between

the audience and the brand that we previously never knew existed. This in turn

will enable us to become even more targeted in messaging, more efficient in

resonating messages and more relatable as brands.

The key to getting the most out of this new technology will ultimately be figuring

out how to analyze the vast amount of data that will be available to us, how to

select the data sets that are most useful and most insightful and then apply it in a

way that connects us more with our audiences while being profitable.

The downside to this overflow of connected information first and

foremost is the lag in adoption. It’s a new idea that may take some

getting used to. Other challenges arise over the issue of privacy—will

consumers be okay with this level of information and knowledge of

their interests and habits being used to sell them goods?

Additionally, we will likely deal with ownership issues: Because Web 3.0 it is still

so new, it’s hard to speculate as to who, if anyone, can claim ownership of links

and datasets. Code is precise, the law is not; and copyright law is still too complex

for a computer to discern. While techies say that there can be no ownership,

that hasn’t stopped businesses from trying. The New York Times includes claim to

some copyright ownership to content in their Linked Open Data library. So, does

8 “Introduction to OWL.” W3Schools Online Web Tutorials. Web. 20 May 2010. <http://www.w3schools.com/rdf/rdf_owl.asp>.

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this mean that a competitor could claim ownership of language specific to your

product, requiring your business to obtain a creative commons license from them?

We don’t yet know, which is why we need to place a greater emphasis on learning

about Web 3.0 before these questions become obstacles.9

Semantic Web, IRL (in real life)

Best Buy® decided it was better to begin exploring the technology of the

Semantic Web sooner rather than later, so recently it implemented a

Web Ontology for e-commerce, called GoodRelations. Shortly after,

Jay Myers, the lead Web development engineer at Best Buy noticed

something: The rank of Best Buy’s pages that incorporated the

Semantic Web language rose significantly in search results compared to

other pages. Myers also noted that since they launched their beta

Semantic Product Web, augmented with GoodRelations and RDFa,

Best Buy has seen a 30 percent increase overall in traffic to its pages.10

What could be considered a fluke was reinforced by Nick Cox from Yahoo!, who

has been quoted as saying that search results that are augmented with structured

data, such as with GoodRelations, get a 15 percent higher click-through rate—

which we all learned in Web 2.0 further boosts SEO.11

Open source, OpenID™ and Open Graph ProtocolWhile much of Web 3.0 is about linking data, it’s also about openness. In

“opening” application programming interfaces (APIs), protocols, data formats,

open source software platforms and open data, possibilities are opened up for

creating new tools. An open Web is one that is high-quality, reliable and low-cost

for the world to create and maintain.12

The term “open source” is most often used to describe software and/or code

that’s available—in part or in whole—to the masses and usually distributed

with the executable code. Unlike traditional software license purchases, open

source software can be altered by anyone and redistributed relatively freely.13 It’s

important to note that open source does not mean “free,” but rather it is about

efficiently creating and altering software that is accurate and powerful for the

purpose of the greater good while reducing research and development costs of a

9 Hellman, Eric. “The New York Times Blunders Into Linked Data, Pillages Freebase and DBPedia.” Go To Hellman. 30 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2010. <http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-york-times-blunders-into-linked.html>.

10 “Best Buy Jump Starts Data Web Marketing.” Chief Marketing Technologist. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://www.chiefmartec.com/2009/12/best-buy-jump-starts-data-web-marketing.html>.

11 “Best Buy Jump Starts Data Web Marketing.” Chief Marketing Technologist. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://www.chiefmartec.com/2009/12/best-buy-jump-starts-data-web-marketing.html>.

12 “What Is Web 3.0?: The Next Generation Web: Search Context for Online Information.” Suite 101: Internet. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://internet.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_web_30>.

13 2006, Wikinvest©. “Concept:Open Source.” WikInvest. Web. 08 May 2010. <http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Open_Source>.

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business. A few examples of open source software that you may be familiar with

are Linux, Drupal, www.WordPress.com, many of Google’s applications and the

Mozilla™ Web browser—but don’t be fooled into thinking that it ends there.14

Based on our previous conversation, it’s also important to note that linked data is

not necessarily open and open source content is not necessarily linked.

Technically a product of Web 2.0, open source has a major presence in subsequent

generations of the Web, especially in the context of data. Tim O’Reilly, founder of

O’Reilly Media and also known as the Open Source Prophet, explains that while

we have open source software and content currently, it’s about how the data of

Web 3.0 will make it more powerful and useful for the masses.

“We can have as much open-source software as we want but we’ve now created

this new layer where these databases that grow through user contributions are

the real source of lock-in,” explains O’Reilly.15

“Eventually, [developers] will make their software open source because it won’t

matter. The value lies in having the data,” says O’Reilly. “The real question is, will

there be a future open source movement that’s really an open data movement.”16

He’s right of course—in order for data to be linked, it must first be open. The

idea of open source has also grown to encompass the term “open content”—any

creative work that is published under a license and allows copying and modifying

of its information by anyone. Essentially an alternative to copyrights that often

create monopolies, open content facilitates the democratization of knowledge.17

This open content allows for increased engagement with audiences—market

research and product development merge with the consumer when they are

allowed to take software, content or products and turn them into something

they find valuable. Additionally, the ideology behind open content has

leached into a new philosophy of the Web in general. In particular, consumers

now demand access to and participation with the very “code” of companies. Web

2.0 taught the world that anyone can use social content to build up or break

down a brand and that businesses are no longer in control of their own brands.

Web 3.0 runs with the concept to create an online environment that is mutually

14 2006, Wikinvest©. “Concept:Open Source.” WikInvest. Web. 08 May 2010. <http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Open_Source>.

15 “Tim O’Reilly: Open-source Purists Trying to Answer the Wrong Question | The Open Road - CNET News.” Technology News - CNET News. 15 June 2009. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10264471-16.html>.

16 “Tim O’Reilly: Open-source Purists Trying to Answer the Wrong Question | The Open Road - CNET News.” Technology News - CNET News. 15 June 2009. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10264471-16.html>.

17 Lawrence Liang, “Free/Open Source Software Open Content”, Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme: e-Primers on Free/Open Source Software, United Nations Development Programme – Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, 2007

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beneficial to the user and the content creator, who are often times one in the

same. New technologies helps further define, measure and create content for the

masses in a way that meets demand for this new iteration of audience buy-in.

The base concept of openness has also led to other innovations that serve to give

users access to the information they are seeking in ways that makes it easier for

them to obtain and to share, such as crowdsourcing, the OpenID and the Open

Graph Protocol technologies.

OpenID is an open standard that allows users to log on to different services with

the same digital identity. Ever notice how logging into to Yahoo! automatically

logs you into Flickr? That’s OpenID … it’s a log-in created by the user, for the user.

Not any one site or company retains a user’s log-in credentials, giving the user

the power to control the information that a site collects on him or her. What’s

more, OpenID provides a potential security safety net—even if a site gets hacked,

OpenID users won’t be affected … the site in question is not storing their

log-in information.

What’s in it for you? Easy-peasy websites, that’s what18:

• Web developers no longer have to choose an identifier for

users—username, e-mail, id number—it no longer matters.

• There’s no longer a need for a log-in screen, which means not having to

worry about encryption, which means no dedicated IP address, certificate

or a server that knows when and when not to switch from http to https

and back again.

• Because you’re not obtaining a log-in means that you don’t have to store

passwords or implement remember password pages.

• Oh, and of course, this means less liability for hacked, exposed or lost

data because how can user information be stolen if it’s not ever obtained

in the first place?

Unfortunately, this could stand to impede some Web marketing efforts because

many businesses rely on the information obtained through account creation

to develop opt-in mailing lists or pools from which to draw demographic

information. Ultimately, it’s a trade off because in place of customer information

18 “The Advantages of OpenID.” Pablo’s Site. 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://pupeno.com/blog/the-advantages-of-openid/>.

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by way of log-ins, business will gain further trust and appreciation in ease of use

when it comes to website customer usability.

Another such example of the open source concept expanding in Web 3.0 is

through the Open Graph Protocol, which allows any Web page to become rich

content within a users social graph—also known as social networks. Open Graph

further hands off power to the consumer to become brand advocates, which

marketers have known for a while is much more effective than a brand being

touted to others by the brand itself.19 The second one, a person shares this

content on a social graph, it’s broadcast to their entire following—exponentially

increasing word of mouth and arguably more than making up for the lack of data

capture involved with unique log ins. It’s relatively simple to implement, too, just

head over to OpenGraphProtocol.org and add a few lines of code to your site.

It may also be important to mention that this concept was created in part and

significantly developed by our friend, Facebook, and currently only works with

such. But that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things: Facebook’s

involvement doesn’t mean the protocol as it is now isn’t beneficial to other sites,

too. As David Recordon with O’Reilly Media explains, Open Graph increases

openness with people based on the ability to connect with people, businesses,

brands, articles and other content around the Web.

“Within Facebook this means that people can ‘like’ any Web page

anywhere, not just those on Facebook.com.” says Recordon.

“Open Graph protocol also increases the amount of semantic data

on the Web in a manner that isn’t specific to Facebook or any single

social network. While we can all disagree about where the quotes and

angle-brackets should go, at the end of the day I think we all can

agree that this sort of metadata is good for the Web.”

Overall, Recordon goes on to explain that Open Graph “dramatically increases

the amount of semantic data on the Web and does so in a fashion which builds

on RDFa and Microformats that anyone—including Google, Twitter, and the

OpenLike project—can make use of.”20

The entire concept of open source allows for more innovation, sourced from a

bigger pool. Subsequently the impact of this innovation will require us to adopt

new innovations faster and market them faster. In essence, open source will

19 The Open Graph Protocol. Web. 14 May 2010. <http://opengraphprotocol.org/>.20 “Why F8 Was Good for the Open Web - O’Reilly Radar.” O’Reilly Radar - Insight, Analysis, and Research about

Emerging Technologies. 23 Apr. 2010. Web. 17 May 2010. <http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/04/why-f8-was-good-for-the-open-w.html>.

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ultimately shorten product lifecycles. How will marketers adopt new innovations

when there will always be something new?

Whether it’s open source, OpenID or Open Graph, the open phenomenon is going

to continue to grow and change the ways in which the Web is developed and

used by companies and their audiences alike. The content that marketers are

creating and sharing is about to be amplified through the open concepts and new

language will likely be required to entice users to share more of such content.

While traditional e-mail marketing is still a key player in the game, move now to

add the ability for users to share articles, blog posts, videos, events, coupons and

more through their social graphs.

Software as a serv ice and c loud computingFrom the customer’s perspective, software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing

are the same—services or software provided over the Internet that are housed

in some magical place called “the cloud.” While technically different, these

aspects of Web 3.0 are changing the tech industry while making the day-to-day

operations of businesses much easier and often more affordable than ever before.

Along the lines of the open concept, SaaS and cloud computing are not new

ideas. However, in the Web 2.0 realm, these technologies were used almost

primarily for sales force automation and CRM. In the Web 3.0 world, though,

human resources, websites, social media monitoring, e-mail, service desks,

collaborative projects through open source, crowd sourcing, financial

information and backup apps are the new bread and butter.

SaaS is software that is deployed over the Internet—a developer or

service provider licenses the application as a service on demand, through

a subscription or a pay-as-you-go model. The provider will also always

host and operate the software for the customer. SkypeSM, Google Apps, Amazon

Web Service, www.SalesForce.com, file sharing services, e-mail marketing services,

financial software and databases, content management systems—these are all

examples of SaaS. The main benefits of this technology are the reduced costs seen

in not having to house powerful software and data on a business’s server space,

the ability to scale back or expand software or services as you go in order to fit

a budget and the reassurance of specialized tech support available at any given

moment, along with training that is often included in the purchase of SaaS.

Furthermore, an increasing number of marketing and communications firms are

developing their own SaaS applications as an offering to clients—most popularly,

applications that can be used to monitor media hits and manage social media and

the continued enhancement of customized Web editing software.

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Similarly, cloud computing is a the sharing of resources, whether it be software,

communications, applications or server space—rather than having local servers

house and manage these things. Basically, cloud computing effectively eliminates

the need for an organization to store programs or information on individual in-

house computers or on expensive servers. Many of the same benefits of SaaS can

be found in cloud computing, too.

In 2009, the City of Los Angeles became the first government entity to convert its

entire internal e-mail system to Google GmailSM. Why? It was identified as a safe,

secure and affordable solution to replacing the city’s outdated and cumbersome

e-mail system.

Additionally, the switch enables agency-wide access to Google Apps, like

internal document sharing, calendaring and more, that increase employee

efficiency and streamline processes among all departments.

Both SaaS and cloud computing have marked a definite change in the way we use

our personal computers, as Nicholas Carr, former editor of the Harvard Business

Review and author of “The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to

Google,” explains …

“Sometime in the past few years, most of us began to change the way we

use our personal computers,” says Carr. “We stopped going out and buying

new software programs and installing them on our hard drives. Instead, we

started using the Internet as our computer, tapping into the vast quantities

of software and data flowing through the network. Our powerful desktop

and laptop PCs have been turned inside out. Most of their value comes

not from what’s inside them but from the network they’re hooked up to.

They’ve become, essentially, terminals.”21

Carr also explains that because of cloud computing, there’s an evident blurring

of the line between software and media occurring—software that once sold as a

packaged good is now stepping aside for the next big media business.

“The success of a software program is coming to be judged not by unit sales

but by the ability of the provider to attract an audience, hold that audience’s

attention with interesting data and tools, and deliver relevant ads to it,”

adds Carr.22

21 “What Cloud Means to Marketing Forecast - Advertising Age - Digital.” Advertising Age. Web. 07 May 2010. <http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=125739>.

22 “What Cloud Means to Marketing Forecast - Advertising Age - Digital.” Advertising Age. Web. 07 May 2010. <http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=125739>.

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MySpace and Facebook were the pioneers of such an idea, but the concept in

Web 3.0 spreads to more traditional programs, like word processors, spreadsheets,

e-mail, photo management, games, and as Carr points out, even tax preparation.

Work with your organization’s IT department to assess what cloud computing

applications could serve as resources or solutions to your organization’s current

efforts. Examine e-mail systems, servers and databases or consider moving to on-

demand software services, or try using wikis or shared documents as a means of

storing and editing draft publications.

The SaaS and cloud computing services increase our access to information and

give businesses and marketers ease in sharing information. Contacts, media lists,

presentations, client files and more can be reached from any computer—allowing

marketers to serve their brands and their clients more efficiently, whether from

the office, at home or by Smartphone at a baseball game. In an already over-

connected culture, you may be thinking, “Oh great. I’ll never have a vacation

again.” Keep in mind, though, that this means the same for customers—they will

become just as connected and more accessible than ever before, is your business

going to be available?

Art i f ic ia l inte l l igenceArtificial intelligence (AI) is not a term coined by Hollywood.

(Although, it is the name of an action-packed Will Smith film in which

robots created by humans to enhance the quality of life murderously

rebel … but that’s neither here nor there.)

The term actually dates back to the ‘50s and refers not just to robots, but to any

technology or machine that is intelligent in that it holds the capacity to perform

operations similar to learning and decision making in humans, and the branch of

computer science that aims to create it.23

Where Web 3.0 is concerned, AI is what makes much of the new technologies

possible. It offers another name for the intelligent search capabilities made

possible by linked data, it is often housed in the cloud and many times it’s

available through open capabilities, but it also refers to much more—a channel to

make these other aspects of Web 3.0 accessible.

Chat bots, for instance. Computer programs that simulate intelligent conversation

with humans online (through text or voice) were once used primarily as a means

to fool users into believing there was a human behind the curtain. In Web 3.0,

23 “Artificial Intelligence.” Dictionary.com. Web. 04 May 2010. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/artificial+intelligence?r=75&src=ref&ch=dic>.

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however, these bots are now being utilized as online customer support services,

personal assistants or a means of acquiring information. They are also still used

as a means for Spammers to reach new, naïve audiences through blog comments

and Twitter.

These chatterbots, as they are also called, appear to the end user to have the

ability to converse, when in reality, this technology is automated to scan for a

combination of keywords and reply as programmed from a database. As you’ve

probably predicted, linked data will also affect how these bots converse

in the future.

In February of 2010, a mobile app called SiriSM launched as an AI virtual

assistant that uses linked data and intelligent search to seek information

for users. Once the app has been purchased and downloaded, a user

simply opens the app and tells it (verbally) what to do:

Say “I need reservations on Tuesday at a French restaurant” and Siri will

then follow up with a few questions pertaining to location and other details, find

you a restaurant and then guide you through how to make reservations.

Say “Are there any funny movies playing by home?” and Siri will pull listings for

comedies showing at theaters closest to your home.

Say “Take me home, I’ve had too much to drink” and Siri will call you a cab.

Essentially, AI can serve two functions—your business can incorporate it as a way

to communicate with customers and audiences—including internal ones—or it can

create a new product based on AI to offer.

Where to start?We predict that Web 3.0 will provide more data to use in which to better reach

audiences; that Web 3.0 will speed innovation while shortening the product

development lifecycle and that it will enable marketers to work more efficiently.

As Web 2.0 has hinted at already, the future of marketing is about relationships.

But, now it’s not just the relationships between brands and consumers it’s also the

relationship between data and information and brands and consumers.

Brands have nary a hope of ever being the primary source of information on

their own products, services or reputation again. While Web 3.0 offers us all the

tools to be better marketers and to measure the effectiveness of campaigns more

completely, in the same token it makes us less relevant. The content matters but

the message is no longer ours—the story is no longer being told by us or housed

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by us. It’s in the cloud, in the social graphs and ranked in importance by others

through Linked Data. In order to survive, marketers must embrace collaboration

and innovation, become open and transparent and continue to produce content

of value.

While it’s important for businesses and organizations to know what Web 3.0 will

bring, and therefore be able to better meet the needs and demands of audiences,

it’s equally important for marketers to take a step back and assess the needs and

uses of Web 3.0 technologies in relation to existing goals and strategies. Perhaps

the biggest blunder of Web 2.0 was too many marketing departments jumping

on the Web 2.0 train without knowing how to use or how best to use it in their

situations; there was a whole lot of back tracking before it became productive. In

Web 3.0, let’s make the biggest innovation the one that surrounds strategy—how

is your marketing department going to incorporate and use these technologies in

a way that is needed and makes sense to your audience? How will you use Linked

Data to become more targeted? These are the questions your business should be

addressing now, before the technologies take hold. Early adopters to Web 3.0 will

find benefit and leverage over competitors more readily available to them than

those who wait. Don’t forget, though, that while the technologies are changing,

our goal must be the same—build customers who love our products as much as

we do.

.end()O’Reilly is known as an adamant opponent to the term Web 3.0. He argues

that it’s more than just an expanded iteration of a previous version—it’s

something new, something of its own right and the Semantic Web is a large

part of it. Regardless of what you call it, the Web that is quickly upon

us—already upon us in many cases—it affects businesses. Marketers

especially stand to be thrilled or bamboozled depending on how prepared

they are and how much thought has been put into developing strategy.

The tools and the strategy are interconnected just like Web 3.0 and isn’t it

just perfect that so many of the aspects of Web 3.0 are so linked to one

another in order to make sense and to be effective? We think so.

4imprint serves more than 100,000 businesses with innovative promotional items throughout the United States,

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