As a one-time technology journalist and analyst I'm pretty inured to industry jargon. OK the co-opting of "cloud" to mean "Internet-based" made a small vein in my forehead throb, but I recovered.

However every time I hear the phrase "Web 3.0" my inner Howard Beale comes ever-closer to the surface. I want to open a window - probably a window on an IRC client - and yell "I'm as mad as hell and I can't take it any more!" Web 2.0 was bad enough. Tim O'Reilly cleverly popularised it as a catchy title for a conference in 2004, but it took on a life of its own, encompassing a rag-tag collection of Web trends with nothing much in common other than a nice marketing catch-phase.

But Web 3.0 is much worse. It's pure snake-oil. Anyone using it is not to doing so in the service of clear communication. No, they have one or more ulterior motives.

No_to_web 3.0.pngThey may want to...

  • induce a profitable paranoia in their audience that they, the expert holds the keys to arcane knowledge beyond the ken of the listener..
  • sprinkle a little marketing-pixie-dust over an otherwise hum-drum product offering
  • be lazy and avoid articulating which particular trend in Web technology or usage they are talking about.
  • avoid revealing that they are actually unsure of what they are talking about, so use the catch-all "Web 3.0" to paper over the cracks in their knowledge.

Often it will be a combination of these.

We owe it to ourselves and our children to nip this pernicious marketing drivel in the bud. It's not too late to stop it from taking hold. The next time you hear some self-important stuffed-shirt uncritically trot out the phrase I encourage you to stand up. Point. Have a good laugh Then ask him or her to explain exactly what they meant when they used the term.

If you're lucky they may offer a succinct definition that could encompass:

  • The Semantic Web - an effort to evolve the Web into a data source that can be unambiguously parsed by computers, thus aiding information reuse and extraction
  • The trend towards open, documented data interfaces that allow information to be mixed and matched into innovative new "mashup" applications
  • The trend towards the Web becoming a platform capable of hosting online services capable of competing with desktop software
  • The increasing importance of the "realtime Web" - the mass of Tweets and social status updates that let people transmit their feelings, activities, news and location.
  • The increasing support for mobile and location-aware Web-based applications, including augmented reality applications.

However they are most likely to opt for

  • "That's difficult to explain in a nutshell, but it's cutting edge stuff!"

Force them to explain themselves. It will do them good since once you and they know what they are actually talking about you can have a proper conversation. Join the campaign today!