Spinning a Stronger Web

My friend just forwarded me this excellent documentary about Web 3.0 that I highly recommend checking out.

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

I don't know about you, but those relationship-graphs make me think ..."I can't believe someone sat down at a desk and put all that together." That, and also more academic, intelligent reflections, such as:

How making sense of all the information on the web is a daunting task (although, I just learned that there are more stars and planetary objects in our galaxy than there are grains of sand in all of the world- think about it). As you can see in the video, there's some conflict between how we approach creating a Semantic Web. Should we:

A) Organize our data so it can be interpreted my machines, or
B) Keep data the way it is, and augment it with hints to help machines interpret it.

I like the humanistic approach of the idea B; it somehow implies a more dynamic system that caters to the way we already encode and use information. Certainly, simplifying the web to fit users needs is extremely valuable, so it will be interesting to see the interfaces and platforms that emerge.

Checking out Google's Wonderwheel gives you an applied idea of how we can visualize these categorizations and semantic links. I personally am not a fan of the way this information is presented, as it seems rather rudimentary. Needless to say, I haven't switched over my Google search just yet. But, with a cooler interface- perhaps a little black and silver- I think it could be an excellent way to streamline the web.

~ Kathryn