WEB 3.0 - The Next Big Thing?

The Next Big Thing?

- Saptak Bardhan

The internet was an innovation that took the world by storm when it was introduced in 1983. Internet is a global computer network that allows a variety of information to be shared. It also facilitates communication as the internet is a vast network of computers connected all around the world. People have often used the terms 'internet' and 'web' interchangeably. However, that cannot be further from the truth. Internet is the computer network that connects computers all over the globe and the web works on the internet. The advent of Internet initiated a snowball effect.

Six years later, the web was introduced in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee. This version of web was called Web 1.0 and it mainly consisted of personal web pages which were mostly static in nature. The static pages were hosted by ISP-run web servers or on free web hosting services.

The second generation of Web, popularly known as Web 2.0 was defined by Dale Dougherty as the read and write web in 2004. The previous generation of Web was known as Read-only Web. Tim O'Reily defined the web 2.0 as a business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform and an attempt to understand the rules for success on the new platform. Web 2.0 has also been called the participative social web. Web 2.0 refers to the way web pages are designed and used and there is no modification in the technical specification. Interaction and collaboration with individuals are allowed by Web 2.0 in a social media dialogue as the creator of user-generated content in a virtual community. Web 2.0 is an enhanced version of Web 1.0.