April 23rd was Tim O-Reilly’s keynote speech at the Web 2.0 Expo. For those who aren’t aware, Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and supporter of open-source and free software first coined the phrase ‘Web 2.0′ in 2005 and is now pushing Web 3.0. So if Mr. O’Reilly invented it, we start with Tim to tell us what it is.

What is Web 2.0 and What is Web 3.0?

As the terminology’s founder, Tim was the man to listen to, but as he finished explaining his definition of web 3.0, I wasn’t the only person to come to a stark realisation. His definition for Web 2.0 was nearly identical to his definition of Web 3.0… Could it be true that even he doen’t know what it means?

Going back to Tim O’Reilly’s widely used and accepted definition for Web 2.0 circa 2006:

“Web 2.0 is the 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 that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them.”

In short; The web 2.0 is a platform which should be used to display collective user input. This theoretically means that Facebook, Wikipedia, MySpace, Ecademy are all ‘Web 2.0 applications’

Looking towards Tim’s Web 3.0 definition (a point to note is that this definition was released before the Web 2.0 definition)

Recently, whenever people ask me “What is Web 3.0?” I’ve been saying that it’s when we apply all the principles we’re learning about aggregating human-generated data and turning it into collective intelligence, and apply that to sensor-generated (machine-generated) data.

So in short; The web 3.0 is a platform which should be used to display collective user input. This theoretically means that Facebook, Wikipedia, MySpace, Ecademy are all ‘Web 3.0 applications’

Finally, Tim’s Web 2.0 definition on slide during his speech read:

• The Internet is the platform
• Harnessing the collective intelligence
• Data as the “Intel Inside”
• Software above the level of a single device
• Software as a service

O’Reilly is talking about both Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 as taking user-generated data and turning it into user-facing services, and there seems to be a great deal of overlap between the two!

My theory is that the Web is just the Web. It is forever changing and evolving through user and designer input, but ultimately it’s the same web with more or less the same capabilities. A few clever websites and technologies have popped up over the years but do they really set a standard for the web as a whole? Does my local plumber need a website which allows complete social networking and Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 technologies? PlumberReunited.com may or may not have a market. Facebook, Ecademy and the likes are businesses providing a service, and they do it well. It doesn’t mean the web has stepped up a version, it simply means some clever clogs started new businesses and are using the current Web in whatever version to monetise on them.

Turning user input into data has been around for as long as I can remember. Sure, back then it was more complicated but we’ve been using online forums for many many years, Facebook just takes a forum and with computer speeds and broadband has more doors opened in terms of what information can be shared in a reasonable amount of time.

“The points of contrast [between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0] are actually the same points that I used to distinguish Web 2.0 from Web 1.5. (I’ve always said that Web 2.0 = Web 1.0, with the dot com bust being a side trip that got it wrong.),” wrote O’Reilly last Autumn.

So in other words, this version separation of the Web is just a waste of time, and the inventor of this terminology seems to agree.

So What is Web 2.0? and What is Web 3.0

In my opinion, and that of many others, Web 2.0 and web 3.0 do not exist and I feel that Tim is one of those ‘others’. They are there to make us feel inferior for not knowing and not using this ‘new’ technology and new systems.

As one ‘on the other hand’ comment however, the discussion of Web 2.0, Web 3.0 etc has sparked much controversy about where the internet is going on a general scale. Controversy always leads to discussion and has brought about many more ideas which will drive us forward with how we use the internet and what we use it for.

Remember when that first website asked you for your credit card details? I bet, like most people you were very skeptical and reluctant to pass this information to the stranger on the other side. Now, in the UK alone, online transactions were worth £12.8bn last year! We’re becoming equally comfortable transferring funds from bank account to bank account online. We’re filing our tax returns online and without the internet, most of us would be forced to leave our offices or homes to reconnect elsewhere.