I was just reading Nicholas Carr on Tim Berners-Lee, the social graph and Web 3.0 and decided it's time to jot down my basic take on what comes after Web 2.0.
Web 1.0 - Platform is the desktop
Web 2.0 - Platform is the open web
Web 3.0 - Platform goes mobile
Web 4.0 - Platform extended to objects & the physical environment
Web 5.0 - Platform enters the human system
Like the shift from the modern to the postmodern, each new phase incorporates and intermingles with previous phases rather than replacing them.
In addition, phases will overlap, some may leapfrog others and, in general, developments will be increasingly nonlinear. For example, while the still closed nature of mobile carrier platforms will be overwhelmed by the open mobile web the extension of the web to objects and into the human body will create an even stronger need for walled gardens and systems that securely mix open and closed elements.
Of course you could focus on other categories of development and explore other trajectories but currently I'm finding the focus on platforms most useful. On a related note, I find the concepts of the Semantic Web and the social graph very Web 2.0.
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