Web 3.0 in 14 minutes

The "semantic web" is upon us, whether we were watching or not. According to Tim Berner-Lee,  the inventor of the world wide web, "data is our lives", and what we are witnessing is a web that aggregates the flow of data, and the relationships between data sets, in ways we cannot yet understand. Information is now far too abundant to integrate within the confines of our own heads, and the Internet facilitates the aggregation of these vast information stores.

This 14 minute video is one of the miracles of our sea of abundance. Arguably the greatest minds currently the probing the edge of the knowledge frontier, describing Web 3.0 and the possible implications. The cynics are just as creditable. And it is freely shared with all of us. Amazing.


Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

Phrases and ideas that jumped out at me:

• the semantic web as an expression of information
• semantics is extra information (organizational code) that helps you build meaning from that information
• links between people, items, locations, ideas all mean something and contribute to build context, and context is where meaning resides
• "Does the world make sense, or do we make sense of the world?"
• the first step is evolution, the second step is revolution - are we at the edge of informational revolution, and is this of form of evolution we are witnessing?
• "That will be cool. That often is the future."

Information is a changeable sea. This is a great time to be a librarian. This is a crucial time to be a school librarian. Our students need to be informed participants in this evolutionary/revolutionary phase. This is our unique responsibility and privilege.

Cheers, colleagues!

Source:
Mashable - The Semantic Web: What it is and why it matters