My colleague Allan Cho and I recently wrote our ideas down about Web 3.0 in an article called The Semantic Web as a large, searchable catalogue: a librarian’s perspective in which we explore our ideas about Web 3.0, also known as the Semantic Web.
In general, the Web (in its current state of disarray) is not unlike print libraries of the 19th century before the Library of Congress and Melvil Dewey introduced classification systems (and better methods of organizing materials on library shelves) – parallels worth exploring. Of a more recent vintage, check out the OCLC and its work in developing Semantic Web technologies. We suggest that the techniques of bibliographic control which have figured so prominently in the training of librarians for more than a generation should be applied to the coming Semantic Web.
Think about the rise of the graphical web since 1995. Computer scientists and engineers created the pre-Google Web and Web 2.0 using various free social software tools, but it will be professionals in the library science and information science field who will play prominent roles in Web 3.0. Although we are still coming to grips with the implications of Web 2.0, we are in a liminal stage. Folksonomies, social tagging, wikis, blogs, podcasts, mashups are building blocks for the coming Semantic web.
Yvonne Chan
lse721