Web 2.0 is a collaborative effort: many hands make light work. Web 3.0, on the other hand, is industrial: task automation replaces human labor. Trite definitions, on the other hand, will not prepare us for change. Our digital economy is in the midst of an Industrial Revolution, whatever you want to call it. You won’t perceive the true disruptive change coming unless you position the Web inside the context of industrial manufacturing.
This story has a lot of similarities to the first Industrial Revolution. Everything used to be made by hand by artisans and experienced tradesmen. Then came the age of mass production, which was ushered in by a slew of technological breakthroughs. It was a watershed moment in human history, touching every facet of life.
The majority of content is still created by hand today, with the best of it being made by highly talented artisans who draw on decades of knowledge and expertise. We’ve recently seen tremendous advancements in social content generation methods. Web 3.0 industrialization, on the other hand, takes content production to a whole new level. Machines do the heavy labor instead of individuals physically creating content. Consumers simply press buttons to complete tasks. Consider the difference between spinning wheels and textile mills.
Right now, we’re in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Billions of dollars are being invested around the world on semantic technologies to build content factories and specialised gear. To allow these firms to trade and collaborate, railways of linked data and standards are being built. Web 3.0 industrial processes and technology are used by the most productive information services in the world.
Primal Fusion is developing one of these Web 3.0 industrial services. I’ve dabbled in Web 1.0, 2.0, and now 3.0 as a business. When I first started in 1996, a single website required a team of highly experienced artisans many weeks to develop. Primal Fusion now allows individuals to create personal websites in minutes rather than weeks or days, simply by brainstorming their interests. As a result, we’re comparing productivity increases between Web 2.0 user-generated content models by orders of magnitude. (Note 1: Dimensions)