Marc Benioff: Web 3.0
In a recent article on TechChrunchIT, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com Mark Benioff brings up the term Web 3.0 to label the third wave of Internet business. According to Mark Benioff the history of the Web looks like this:
- Web 1.0 := Anyone can Transact (the Internet as transaction medium for new big enterprises like eBay and Amazon)
- Web 2.0 := Anyone can Participate (social networking, user-generated content, online collaboration)
- Web 3.0 := Anyone can Innovate (the market barrier for creating Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 applications decreases, pushing SaaS)
The Web 3.0 is about Cloud Computing as an enabler for innovation, Web-scale programming and SaaS. Market barriers are reduced due to easy, service-oriented access to scalable infrastructure, the possibility to test and deploy large-scale projects with low entry costs, and eventually terminate projects that do not go well without (financial and technological) problems associated with down-scaling.
One of the comments points to a YouTube video from August 2007 in which Eric Schmidt explains what he thinks about Web 3.0:
Question: “What is Web 3.0?”
Schmidt: “Well, Web 2.0 is a marketing term and I think you just invented Web 3.0. But if I had to guess what Web 2.0 is, I would tell you that it is a different way of building applications. Up until now Web 2.0 has been a term that corresponds to something called Ajax. [...] My prediction would be that Web 3.0 will ultimately be seen as applications that are pieced together. There are a number of characteristics: the applications are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the applications can run on any device, PC or mobile phone, the applications are very fast and customizable, and furthermore the applications are distributed [virally]. [...] That’s a very different application model that we have ever seen in computing. Very different from the mainframe era, very different from the PC industry, likely to be very, very large. There are low barriers of entry, the new generation of tools [..] make it relatively easy to do, solves a lot of problems, and runs everywhere.”
Tim O’Reilly: Web 2.0
Well, we don’t need another buzzword. Let’s revisit Tim O’Reilly’s article on the Web 2.0 from 2005.
Web 2.0 :=
- Web as Platform
- Harnessing Collective Intelligence
- Data is the Next Intel Inside
- End of the Software Release Cycle
- Lightweight Programming Models
- Software Above the Level of a Single Device
- Rich User Experiences
I think 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cover most of the aspects that Benioff and Schmidt referred to. What about programming models and innovation? This clearly is a driver for Cloud Computing and related trends. The promise: “Build your own Web-scale service in 24 hours”.
O’Reilly writes about lightweight programming (loose coupling, REST-style Web Services) and innovation in assembly (à la Mashup). Perhaps Cloud Computing can be thought of as a trend to bring this kind of simplicity down the application stack. Web 2.0 for the IT operations guy, so to say.
August 3, 2008 at 11:28 am |
Web 2.0 Is Like Pornography
Like so many tech articles posted since Tim O’Reilly coined the term in 2004, this one references “Web 2.0″ as if it were something tangible–or at least a concept with clear, concise definition. It is not. In 2006, Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee sagely observed that “nobody knows what it means”:
http://tinyurl.com/y6ewzy
In 2007, Michael Wesch put together this video that supposedly “explains what Web 2.0 really is about”:
http://tinyurl.com/6pdz2q
It is a cool video. But the message is all about XML and how it can be used to separate form and content. There was no mention of CSS and XHTML, but no matter. I was writing XML parsers in the ’90s, and XHTML/CSS web design pre-dates “Web 2.0″ as well.
And now in 2008, the most honest thing we can say is that “Web 2.0″ means whatever the techno-marketeer (ab)using it wants it to mean. Otherwise, why would intelligent people like Isaac O’Bannon still be writing articles asking “What is Web 2.0?”:
http://tinyurl.com/5solok
And, why would McKinsey’s just-released best-of-breed report entitled “Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise” …
http://tinyurl.com/6sxls7
… include no attempt at defining the term other than to list the “Web 2.0 Tools” that comprise or enable it? And even there, the chief ingredient is identified only as “Web Services”, adding more mystery to the mix as one ethereal term is offered up to explain another.
As originated in an Onstartups.com website design posting…
http://tinyurl.com/576sgs
… “Web 2.0″ is like pornography: Nobody has defined it, but you know it when you see it.
Bruce Arnold, Web Designer, Miami Florida
http://www.PervasivePersuasion.com
August 3, 2008 at 12:10 pm |
Thank you for your comment and the links.
I think you are right that “Web 2.0″ is not a definition in the sense that one could prove it right or wrong. Imho, it is more of a stipulative definition that can be used in the course of a discussion. In the article, O’Reilly names some ideas from a Web 2.0 brainstorming meeting. The categories were derived from comparing successful companies in the old Web 1.0 era with successful companies in the new Web 2.0 era (This does not mean that the Web 1.0 business model does not work any more, they are not necessarily replaced. It also does not mean that a Web 1.0 company cannot be a Web 2.0 company as well or change its business model over time).
I think a great example for this transition process is Amazon. They started as a typical Web 1.0 company, selling books. Then they established a new business model by being a market place platform for other retailers, without giving up the customer-facing business. Now, besides the customer- and seller-facing business, they build a developer-facing business with Amazon Web Services.
So, in my opinion Web 2.0 is not about XML or HTTP (like you said, this already existed before), it is about changing usage and design patterns (how to apply the technology to build services/apps), as well as the creation of new business models (how to apply the technology to make money).
August 18, 2008 at 8:33 pm |
Cloud Computing Blogs…
It’s Blog Week here at Data Center Knowledge. Each day this week we’ll share a list of the blogs we find worthwhile in a sector of the data center world. Today we kick things off with Cloud Computing Blogs, a……