Scripting News: It's Web 3.0!

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

It's Web 3.0!

Nick Carr notices something about the hype of Freebase that I had missed.

John Markoff wrote the article in today's NY Times announcing Freebase. It reads like a corporate press release, not even one naysayer, not one qualification, not even a competitor, though there are many. This is the greatest stuff ever, period. Fluff. How that made it through the Times editorial process is a question for another day.

In an earlier piece, on page 1 of the Times, Markoff used the term Web 3.0, to describe almost exactly what Freebase purports to be. So it stands to reason that we're looking at two points of vaporous hype that will someday be connected, probably by Markoff. Or maybe Tim O'Reilly, seeing the writing on the wall, will concede that Web 2.0 is yesterday's news, the real exciting stuff is Web 3.0, and btw, look there never was a bubble pop!

I almost put a smiley at the end of the last paragraph; it would be funny if it weren't so how the hype machine of Silicon Valley works. There's nothing substantial about any of this, if there were, you'd be able to use the software today and some of the benefits it promises would be visible, today.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:33 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

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